Codeboxer by Krister Axel

a proof of concept maze game for ipad made with codea

Thu, 10 May 2012 18:48:48 +0000

I've been playing with Codea, a Lua-based iPad app that allows you to make your own iPad games. My game currently takes about 8 seconds to win, which is not much, but really I'm just messing around with things until I get the hang of it. I like Codea because Lua is a really simple scripting language with decidedly few curly brackets - thumbs up for that - and it ships with a bunch of sprites you can use. It's also pretty easy to get the Lua files off your iPad (using iExplore) for backup, and you can add your own png sprites by just putting them in a directory with a pinfo file and uploading them to your iPad. Sweet! [video src="http://blog.kristeraxel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IMG_0027.mov"]

ruby find dup hash on key in array

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:26:54 +0000

Ruby I love you.

impersonating a MySQL split function

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:42:29 +0000

There is no string split in MySQL. How sad. Here is how I used INSTR, SUBSTRING_INDEX and LEFT to pull month day and year out of the original date field which was in the YYYY-MM-DD format - which is my favorite because it orders chronologically. linked here: mysql-split.sql

getting windows 7 to play nice with a mac airport express

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:26:20 +0000

Something about iPv4 vs. 6 and correct DHCP authentication, I had a lot of trouble getting my windows 7 box to connect - via ethernet - to the Airport Express that I have 'extending' my mac-based network. The error message I kept getting was:

"Local Area Connection" doesn't have a valid IP configuration

I finally got it working:

1- unplug you LAN cable and wireless connection. Go to "Ethernet Adapter local area connection 2" properties.
2- select "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)"
3- press Properties button
4- select "Use the following IP address:" option and set this ips:
IP=192.168.1.105
subnet mask=255.255.255.0
default gateway = your router ip address such as 192.168.1.1
5- from second section select "Use the following DNS server addresses:"
set "PreferAlternate DNS server:" your router default ip, for example 192.168.1.1
6-press ok and try to connect through lan then wireless

After those steps, I also had to click through for Windows to auto-fix the problem it found that DHCP was not enabled.

thumbs up for express js and sideways for quo vadis

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:11:19 +0000

I've just been checking out some stuff lately and have been dying to try out express.js, which is built on the node.js framework. It is easy to use, super fast, and very cool. I highly recommend it for a lightweight and snappy front-end.

Also, I am finally making the jump to Rails 3.2, and for that reason am porting my entire gmgpulse app, complete with new auth layer and switching from prototype to jQuery. It's a lot of work but will pay many dividends. Essentially I am paying off some existing technical debt and moving the whole enterprise back into the black! I am trying out a very simple and effective auth gem called 'quo_vadis' but currently it has a problem with the 3.2 release so I am crossing my fingers that the guy who manages the gem will merge the pull request soon - it has already been fixed. I figure since I have about 30-60 days before it needs to work, I may be all right.

UPDATE: The gem owner has merged the pull request, and quo vadis is back to 100% functional with Rails 3.2 (as of gem v1.1.2). I give it a full thumbs up now as well - simple, straightforward, easy set up, everything you want in a simple password auth system. There is no support for outside services - FB, or google, or open id, etc. - but sometimes you don't need that and it just creates unneeded complexity.

strange delete syntax with join for mysql

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:14:33 +0000

With MySQL 5, there are two rules if you need to join to another table in order to delete records from somewhere.

Rule 1: no aliases allowed. Refer only to tables as themselves - better hope the names aren't very long!
Rule 2: specify table name from which to delete before the FROM clause.

Like so:

  DELETE sales from sales
    JOIN retailers on sales.retailer_id = retailers.id
   WHERE retailers.merchant in ('Test Merchant', 
                                'Other merchants that should not be here')

Epigrams in programming

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:20:13 +0000

An ode to Alan Perlis, copied from Yale:

1. One man's constant is another man's variable.
2. Functions delay binding; data structures induce binding. Moral: Structure data late in the programming process.
3. Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
4. Every program is a part of some other program and rarely fits.
5. If a program manipulates a large amount of data, it does so in a small number of ways.
6. Symmetry is a complexity-reducing concept (co-routines include subroutines); seek it everywhere.
7. It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.
8. A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.
9. It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than 10 functions on 10 data structures.
10. Get into a rut early: Do the same process the same way. Accumulate idioms. Standardize. The only difference(!) between Shakespeare and you was the size of his idiom list - not the size of his vocabulary.
11. If you have a procedure with ten parameters, you probably missed some.
12. Recursion is the root of computation since it trades description for time.
13. If two people write exactly the same program, each should be put into microcode and then they certainly won't be the same.
14. In the long run every program becomes rococo - then rubble.
15. Everything should be built top-down, except the first time.
16. Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written, and another for which it wasn't.
17. If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
18. A program without a loop and a structured variable isn't worth writing.
19. A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing.
20. Wherever there is modularity there is the potential for misunderstanding: Hiding information implies a need to check communication.
21. Optimization hinders evolution.
22. A good system can't have a weak command language.
23. To understand a program you must become both the machine and the program.
24. Perhaps if we wrote programs from childhood on, as adults we'd be able to read them.
25. One can only display complex information in the mind. Like seeing, movement or flow or alteration of view is more important than the static picture, no matter how lovely.
26. There will always be things we wish to say in our programs that in all known languages can only be said poorly.
27. Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.
28. Around computers it is difficult to find the correct unit of time to measure progress. Some cathedrals took a century to complete. Can you imagine the grandeur and scope of a program that would take as long?
29. For systems, the analogue of a face-lift is to add to the control graph an edge that creates a cycle, not just an additional node.
30. In programming, everything we do is a special case of something more general -- and often we know it too quickly.
31. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
32. Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic but by the completeness of their case analysis.
33. The eleventh commandment was "Thou Shalt Compute" or "Thou Shalt Not Compute" - I forget which.
34. The string is a stark data structure and everywhere it is passed there is much duplication of process. It is a perfect vehicle for hiding information.
35. Everyone can be taught to sculpt: Michelangelo would have had to be taught not to. So it is with great programmers.
36. The use of a program to prove the 4-color theorem will not change mathematics - it merely demonstrates that the theorem, a challenge for a century, is probably not important to mathematics.
37. The most important computer is the one that rages in our skulls and ever seeks that satisfactory external emulator. The standarization of real computers would be a disaster - and so it probably won't happen.
38. Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.
39. Re graphics: A picture is worth 10K words - but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.
40. There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.
41. Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand progress.
42. You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN.
43. In software systems, it is often the early bird that makes the worm.
44.Sometimes I think the only universal in the computing field is the fetch-execute cycle.
45. The goal of computation is the emulation of our synthetic abilities, not the understanding of our analytic ones.
46. Like punning, programming is a play on words.
47. As Will Rogers would have said, "There is no such thing as a free variable."
48. The best book on programming for the layman is "Alice in Wonderland"; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.
49. Giving up on assembly language was the apple in our Garden of Eden: Languages whose use squanders machine cycles are sinful. The LISP machine now permits LISP programmers to abandon bra and fig-leaf.
50. When we understand knowledge-based systems, it will be as before -- except our fingertips will have been singed.
51. Bringing computers into the home won't change either one, but may revitalize the corner saloon.
52. Systems have sub-systems and sub-systems have sub- systems and so on ad infinitum - which is why we're always starting over.
53. So many good ideas are never heard from again once they embark in a voyage on the semantic gulf.
54. Beware of the Turing tar-pit in which everything is possible but nothing of interest is easy.
55. A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
56. Software is under a constant tension. Being symbolic it is arbitrarily perfectible; but also it is arbitrarily changeable.
57. It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.
58. Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.
59. In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
60. In seeking the unattainable, simplicity only gets in the way.
61. In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn.
62. In computing, invariants are ephemeral.
63. When we write programs that "learn", it turns out that we do and they don't.
64. Often it is the means that justify the ends: Goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble.
65. Make no mistake about it: Computers process numbers - not symbols. We measure our understanding (and control) by the extent to which we can arithmetize an activity.
66. Making something variable is easy. Controlling duration of constancy is the trick.
67. Think of all the psychic energy expended in seeking a fundamental distinction between "algorithm" and "program".
68. If we believe in data structures, we must believe in independent (hence simultaneous) processing. For why else would we collect items within a structure? Why do we tolerate languages that give us the one without the other?
69. In a 5 year period we get one superb programming language. Only we can't control when the 5 year period will be.
70. Over the centuries the Indians developed sign language for communicating phenomena of interest. Programmers from different tribes (FORTRAN, LISP, ALGOL, SNOBOL, etc.) could use one that doesn't require them to carry a blackboard on their ponies.
71. Documentation is like term insurance: It satisfies because almost no one who subscribes to it depends on its benefits.
72. An adequate bootstrap is a contradiction in terms.
73. It is not a language's weakness but its strengths that control the gradient of its change: Alas, a language never escapes its embryonic sac.
74. Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to see it as a soap bubble?
75. Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches: Banality soothes our nerves.
76. It is the user who should parameterize procedures, not their creators.
77. The cybernetic exchange between man, computer and algorithm is like a game of musical chairs: The frantic search for balance always leaves one of the three standing ill at ease.
78. If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan.
79. A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
80. Prolonged contact with the computer turns mathematicians into clerks and vice versa.
81. In computing, turning the obvious into the useful is a living definition of the word "frustration".
82. We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-last theorem.
83. What is the difference between a Turing machine and the modern computer? It's the same as that between Hillary's ascent of Everest and the establishment of a Hilton hotel on its peak.
84. Motto for a research laboratory: What we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
85. Though the Chinese should adore APL, it's FORTRAN they put their money on.
86. We kid ourselves if we think that the ratio of procedure to data in an active data-base system can be made arbitrarily small or even kept small.
87. We have the mini and the micro computer. In what semantic niche would the pico computer fall?
88. It is not the computer's fault that Maxwell's equations are not adequate to design the electric motor.
89. One does not learn computing by using a hand calculator, but one can forget arithmetic.
90. Computation has made the tree flower.
91. The computer reminds one of Lon Chaney -- it is the machine of a thousand faces.
92. The computer is the ultimate polluter: its feces are indistinguish- able from the food it produces.
93. When someone says "I want a programming language in which I need only say what I wish done," give him a lollipop.
94. Interfaces keep things tidy, but don't accelerate growth: Functions do.
95. Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them.
96. Computers don't introduce order anywhere as much as they expose opportunities.
97. When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.
98. In computing, the mean time to failure keeps getting shorter.
99. In man-machine symbiosis, it is man who must adjust: The machines can't.
100. We will never run out of things to program as long as there is a single program around.
101. Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.
102. One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
103. Purely applicative languages are poorly applicable.
104. The proof of a system's value is its existence.
105. You can't communicate complexity, only an awareness of it.
106. It's difficult to extract sense from strings, but they're the only communication coin we can count on.
107. The debate rages on: is PL/I Bachtrian or Dromedary?
108. Whenever two programmers meet to criticize their programs, both are silent.
109. Think of it! With VLSI we can pack 100 ENIACS in 1 sq. cm.
110. Editing is a rewording activity.
111. Why did the Roman Empire collapse? What is Latin for office automation?
112. Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.
113. The only constructive theory connecting neuroscience and psychology will arise from the study of software.
114. Within a computer natural language is unnatural.
115. Most people find the concept of programming obvious, but the doing impossible.
116. You think you know when you can learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program.
117. It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program. What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and learning to be self-critical?
118. If you can imagine a society in which the computer- robot is the only menial, you can imagine anything.
119. Programming is an unnatural act.
120. Adapting old programs to fit new machines usually means adapting new machines to behave like old ones.

Yahoo geocoder is gone

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:06:04 +0000

Yahoo quietly discontinued it's geocoding feature in September. I kept getting 503 errors until I looked at the Yahoo developer maps page. I wonder if they were just using google maps on the backend and couldn't afford the new pricing structure. Bummer, because I used it for almost everything I do with calculating latitude and longitude values on the fly. I am now refactoring to use google maps instead. One might argue that I should have done that to start with.

the fizzbuzz problem

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 20:16:52 +0000

I got the idea to try this from this article after reading this article. I stumbled a little on the mod function, I thought you could write 'mod' instead of using the '%' operator. So it took me just under 4 minutes. Hopefully that puts me somewhere above the middle of the pack. Also, for the record I built a directory for the script and made sure it ran correctly within those three minutes. I saw a guy who says he did it in C in 30 seconds, and I'm pretty sure he didn't compile or run it in that time. Cheater!

AirAxel:fizzbuzz pi$ ruby testfb.rb 
1
2
fizz
4
buzz
fizz
7
8
fizz
buzz
11
fizz
13
14
fizzbuzz
16
17
fizz
19
buzz
fizz
22
23
fizz
buzz
26
fizz
28
29
fizzbuzz
31
32
fizz
34
buzz
fizz
37
38
fizz
buzz
41
fizz
43
44
fizzbuzz
46
47
fizz
49
buzz
fizz
52
53
fizz
buzz
56
fizz
58
59
fizzbuzz
61
62
fizz
64
buzz
fizz
67
68
fizz
buzz
71
fizz
73
74
fizzbuzz
76
77
fizz
79
buzz
fizz
82
83
fizz
buzz
86
fizz
88
89
fizzbuzz
91
92
fizz
94
buzz
fizz
97
98
fizz
buzz
AirAxel:fizzbuzz pi$

if it were not for Steve

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:16:05 +0000

If it were not for Steve:

I would probably still be a Windows developer.
My laptop would be a lot uglier.
I would probably still have a cable TV subscription.
I wouldn't love to hate iTunes so much.
I wouldn't be tempted every day to buy an iPhone.
I wouldn't be tempted every day to buy an iPad.
The software development community would probably be very different and certainly for the worse.
Finding Nemo would never have made me cry.
Today would not be such a sad day.

Rest in peace, great man.

This is also cool - the simple but unprecedented Google tribute:

get rid of the patch gem_dependency.rb:119 error

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:20:03 +0000

Hate this error?

fix version_requirements is deprecated 

and will be removed on or after August 2010. 

Use #requirement

Use this:

copied from here

Just remember to switch out the directory after -d with wherever gem_dependency.rb lives on your system (it’s in the warning message). It is probably bad practice to patch your system gems, but to get rid of this warning we can make an exception... If something goes wrong, reverse the patch with:

setting up a MacBook Air 2011

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:07:57 +0000

This was copied from this great post by Frederico Araujo, with some small modifications for my own use case. MacPorts is still a smart way to go, I tried Homebrew first and ended up in Ruby gem hell. Also, read all the way to the bottom before you start (you may need to add wget via MacPorts before step 3).

Requirements:

Snow Leopard 10.6.4 or greater
Xcode 3.2.3, 2.4.1 or greater
Admin privileges on your mac.

Software preliminary:

Mysql 5.1.49 (macports)
Ruby 1.8.7 (macports)
Rubygems (download)

1. Preparing System

If you are upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard, I recommend you delete your old installation.

sudo rm -rf \
    /opt/local \
    /Applications/DarwinPorts \
    /Applications/MacPorts \
    /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.* \
    /Library/Receipts/DarwinPorts*.pkg \
    /Library/Receipts/MacPorts*.pkg \
    /Library/StartupItems/DarwinPortsStartup \
    /Library/Tcl/darwinports1.0 \
    /Library/Tcl/macports1.0 \
    ~/.macports

Note: I was setting up a new MacBook Air, so I didn't need to do this, but I left it here for reference.

1.1 Prepare PATH environment:

$vim ~/.bash_profile

Edit your ~/.bash_profile file and add these 2 lines.
Check if they are not there already.

export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
export MANPATH=/opt/local/share/man:$MANPATH

1.2 Download and Install Xcode

http://developer.apple.com/technologies/xcode.html

Here I used the XCode install from my Snow Leopard disc, the above link is from the original post. The link includes the XCode SDK, I think, so it's a bigger download (4gb) whereas the Snow Leopard XCode install is only 2.7gb which is all you need for just Rails stuff and with a smallish hard drive, every gb counts. Also, I did the install via driveshare from my other MacBook Pro.

1.3 Download Macports and install

Download Page: http://www.macports.org/install.php

Download Direct Link: http://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-1.9.2-10.6-SnowLeopard.dmg

You might use this guide for installing Macports:

Full Install Guide: http://guide.macports.org/#installing

1.3.1 Update macports

sudo port -v selfupdate

2. Mysql

2.1 Install Mysql

sudo port -v install mysql5-server mysql5

2.2 Make mysql autoload on startup

sudo port load mysql5-server
sudo -u mysql mysql_install_db5

3. Ruby, Rubygems, Rails, other gems

3.1 Install Ruby from macports

sudo port -v install ruby

$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.7 (2010-08-08 patchlevel 302) [x86_64-darwin10]

3.2 download rubygems from http://rubygems.org/pages/download

cd /tmp
wget http://production.cf.rubygems.org/rubygems/rubygems-1.3.7.tgz
tar xpf rubygems-1.3.7.tgz
cd rubygems-1.3.7
sudo ruby setup.rb

3.3 Install rails, rake, rspec etc.

You may want a lot of other gems, I added xml-simple, fastercsv, calendar_helper, etc., so add gems as needed, especially the mysql gem which you will need - but do that as specified in the next step.

sudo gem install rake rails ruby-debug

3.4 install mysql gem

sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install mysql -- \ 
--with-mysql-config=/opt/local/lib/mysql5/bin/mysql_config

DO THIS BEFORE step 3: I had to run

sudo port install wget

before I was able to get the RubyGems install package (wget does not ship with Snow Leopard). Other things I had to do:

I had to install git from a package here.

good luck!

prawn for Rails

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 07:02:43 +0000

I had a question from @rcstolle on how to use Prawn, so here is a short primer. There are two ways to go - Prawn gives a pretty good amount of control via the built-in methods, so if your layout is static enough you can just build a report with what amounts to something of a cursor. Somehow it feels vaguely like Crystal Reports for those dinosaurs like me who actually used to use that once upon a time. You set the fill color, you build the table, you move to cursor down a few pixels, et cetera. Everything is pixel based and although it feels pretty solid, you don't get any CSS, you can't float anything, and in the end the use-cases are sort of limited. The other route is to use the grid-based option, which allows greater control and flexibility but also forces you to delve a little deeper into the Prawn object model. Here are some code samples to show how the Prawn::Document::Grid class can be used in practice. Starting with the document class: the page: the section: and the supporting classes: which leans heavily on the Forwardable module. Here, although you are still working very much with pixel values, you also are specifying rows which can help with complex layouts. If you need some reference for the Prawn Grid module it is here. So, the bottom line is that Prawn can handle whatever you throw at it. It is a very powerful tool and I don't know of anything that even comes close in terms of pure Ruby solutions to writing PDF reports.

The change you wanted was rejected.

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:32:57 +0000

Maybe you tried to change something you didn't have access to.

If you see this on your Rails-based Facebook app, try disabling 'protect_from_forgery' in your ApplicationController. Facebook uses signed_request that you can decode and use to verify that the request actually comes from Facebook, so protect_from_forgery is unnecessary for applications that are accessible through the facebook canvas only.

reverse string function

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 20:53:25 +0000

Good times.

checking JRE and JDK versions on a mac 10.6

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:24:01 +0000

I know it's not rocket science, but it is worth explaining.

In a terminal:

  java -version

will check the JRE version;

whereas

  javac -version

will check the JDK version.

like so:


zeta:rockstaralley kaxel$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_22"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_22-b04-307-10M3261)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 17.1-b03-307, mixed mode)
zeta:rockstaralley kaxel$ javac -version
javac 1.6.0_22

The JRE ships with the Mac OS (or so I'm told) but the JDK installs with the XCode package.

you're welcome!

one column liquid layout

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:40:15 +0000

I am using this for the Android app I'm working on, and it is spot on.

HTML found here: http://www.maxdesign.com.au/articles/css-layouts/one-liquid/

and the css (which I have added to a little bit compared to the original):


#container
{
	margin: 0 30px;
	background: #fff;
}

#header
{
	background: #ccc;
	padding: 20px;
}

#header h1 { margin: 0; text-align: center;}

#navigation
{
	float: left;
	width: 100%;
	background: #333;
}

#navigation ul
{
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
}

#navigation ul li
{
	list-style-type: none;
	display: inline;
}

#navigation li a
{
	display: block;
	float: left;
	padding: 5px 10px;
	color: #fff;
	text-decoration: none;
	border-right: 1px solid #fff;
}

#navigation li a:hover { background: #383; }

#content
{
	clear: left;
	padding: 20px;
}

#message
{
	background-color: #ccc;
	padding: 10px;
}

.field
{
	border-left: 4px solid red;
	padding-left: 20px;
}

.username {font-weight: bold;}

#content h2
{
	color: #000;
	font-size: 160%;
	margin: 0 0 .5em;
}

#footer
{
	background: #ccc;
	text-align: right;
	padding: 20px;
	height: 1%;
}

quick and dirty rake ci script

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 20:51:49 +0000

I know, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles; you need to add the files to git by hand; and you can move right through with unstaged changes with nary a peep in protest. But it still does the trick and makes my life easier - so here it is: my quick and dirty rake ci script -

save it in a rake file called whatever you like and do all your checkins, after doing a 'git add .' or what have you - like this:

rake ci

Done!

new routes in rails 3.1

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 06:50:45 +0000

explained here:

http://www.engineyard.com/blog/2010/the-lowdown-on-routes-in-rails-3/

I was already on 3.0.3, so it basically amounted to removing the |map| from

Rockstaralley::Application.routes.draw do |map|
  #routes are mapped here
end

which was fine with me.

update your Gemfile with one line

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:30:20 +0000

rm -rf .bundle && bundle install && 
    git add Gemfile.lock && git commit -m "Added Gemfile.lock"

Good times.

FTPS for dummies

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:29:35 +0000

Yah, I know it's been a while, but I've been busy. Work, family, vacation, video games - it's a long list.

Anyway, for my first post of the year, I am posting code that I found here:

http://blog.behindlogic.com/2009/03/ruby-ftps-implicit-ssl.html

written by a nice gentleman named Daniel Parker, who basically got to it first.

I have long known that the standard FTP class that rolls with Rails has no knowledge of or familiarity with FTPS, which is FTP with implicit ssl which is a new standard by our 'friends' at Microsoft, who never met a party they didn't want to piss on (true story).

Anyway, the bullet finally found me and from now on I will have to learn to make my Rails 2.3.5 app play nice with IIS. First step - connecting via FTPS to pull files down - we used to use SFTP but I guess that was either too simple and/or functional for the Microsoft team to get on board.

I found the above post by Mr. Parker, and it helped a lot. Here is the code:

Use it just as you would the FTP class.

Here it is in a rake test task (because I don't like my test suite to actually connect to live servers):

Got it?

also many thanks to Daniel Parker for making my life a little easier and posting the code so generously.

custom wordpress css

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 07:25:29 +0000

This is my Wordpress css tweak code and I may need it again later.

div .content {font-style: italic;} div .entry-content {font-style: normal !important;} .entry .content {font-style: normal !important;} #searchlabel {display: none;} a img {border: none; }

shipping your LX20

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 01:40:02 +0000

If you are shipping your XT, LX-20 or XT-20, put it in this "shipping mode." It will secure the transport for safer shipping:

WITH NO TAPE in the deck, power up the machine while holding down the "record ready/arm" buttons for tracks 1 and 7.
Display will read "0 SHiP *".
Press "play" and you will hear the transport engaging as if there was a tape in it. Give it a few seconds to complete.
Display will read "SHiP rdY". (Ship Ready)
Power down the deck. When it is powered up again, the transport will reset to normal mode. Allow a few seconds for this to complete before inserting a tape.

CSV IllegalFormatError

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 21:32:22 +0000

CSV::IllegalFormatError

If you all of a sudden are getting this error in your tests and you just upgraded your version of Rails. say to 2.3.5 or above, never fear.

You just have to change all of your old csv test fixtures to yaml.

Have fun with that!

javascript for fun and profit

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:19:16 +0000

usage:

  arr = [1, 2, 2, 3];
  var u = unique(arr);
  
  u.length == 3   # TRUE

the mars rover assignment

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 21:11:13 +0000

Who rocked the Mars rover assignment? I did. I have seen a bunch of submissions now and I have seen nothing close to as good or as thorough as the one I submitted.

mars_rover

simple blog class for displaying tweets

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:49:56 +0000

This is used in a rails 3.0 project.

Precision in speech based communications

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:38:34 +0000

Precision in speech-based communications

I will start with a quote, which is ostensibly a technical communication. Sure it is from a 'message board', which is more or less an informal medium, but that does not mean that universal rules of logic will not apply. Besides, it is a work message board (Campfire), and is used extensively as a measure of our internal communications. I think at the root of it that all communications should and for the most part will be judged mainly in terms of how effective they are, and to a smaller extent in terms of the economy of effort involved with understanding them. So here's the quote:

"the fix that fixes the workflow tests no longer applies, so 2 of the 3 will still be broken - FYI"

This is from a small team of developers working together on a single code base, with a set of automated tests that are maintained collectively. The expectations here are as stated above, namely that the message be effective and succinct. What Is Being Said?, as well as How long Does It Take Me To Understand It? should be the two questions in mind when assessing the inherent value of this message.

What Is Being Said?

In essence, we have a simple logical statement here - premise, conclusion. This is so, so that is so. Let's examine the first part, the premise.

the fix that fixes the workflow tests no longer applies

There are many potential meanings here, which one might call an ambiguous premise. First, the word 'fix' is used as both a subject and a verb, which is bad form. It would be better to replace one or the other with a valid synonym, just to avoid confusion. The 'fix that addresses the workflow tests', perhaps.
Next, we can see that 'the workflow tests' are referred to collectively, which is a mistake in specificity. The employee here knows very well that there are only 3 specific tests that are affected - the 3 that are mentioned in the conclusion - but they prefer to describe as little as possible, essentially missing two chances to actually specify them. Of course, brevity is king, but it would be as easy as saying the 'fix that addresses the drug_name workflow tests' which is only one extra word but helps us get much closer to a specific and limited subject from which to subsequently draw a conclusion. Finally, the last glaring problem here is that the phrase 'no longer applies' is badly worded because it implies another question, namely 'why does it no longer apply?'. It is also interesting that the employee goes to a certain length to be non-explicit - vagueness also at the expense of brevity. Did the tests break? Is it true that the 'fix' still 'fixes' the tests, if it 'no longer applies'? The premise itself borders on the nonsensical. Better to say 'the drug_name workflow tests are broken', or maybe 'the drug_name workflow tests are no longer needed', or 'the drug_name workflow tests need to be refactored'. All 3 of those different scenarios are perhaps referenced by this statement but we don't know which.

so 2 of the 3 will still be broken - FYI
Stemming from an ambiguous premise, this is hard to parse, but we can see a few simple problems with the form again.

First, '2 of the 3' - which three? Using 'the' here implies that we know which 3 to which the speaker refers, but this is the first time we hear of that number. So, in essence the reader is forced to conclude that the number 3 refers to the collective statement about workflow tests in the premise, but that is by no means explicit and fails one or both our expectations, depending on how generous you are - either it communicates ineffectively AND takes more time than necessary to understand, or it just takes more time than necessary to understand.

And yet again, the phraseology 'will still be broken' implies that we know already that they are broken and are being informed simply that they will remain so, another mistake in the reference chain, if you will. We were never actually told that anything was already broken - if you remember, we were told just that 'the fix...no longer applies', so this conclusion leaves us, among other things, wondering if we were supposed to have had some information in the premise that was never forthcoming.

So, to conclude, we have no conclusion. We are left with more questions than answers. As I just mentioned, we are not sure if we missed something in the premise; we don't know why whatever just happened only applies to '2 of the 3'; and we have absolutely no expectation for the future which is usually what statements like these are used for. We don't know if this is a surprise, if someone should be working on it or perhaps already is, if this is a temporary state that will resolve itself somehow; so the usage of FYI is both unfortunate and supremely ironic, because of all the thing we have here, information is not one of them.

So please - be specific. Every time someone misses the opportunity to communicate effectively the whole world gets a little bit dumber.

you need this to run rails on ubuntu

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:29:18 +0000

sudo apt-get install libopenssl-ruby

in order to combat this error:

no such file to load -- openssl

be forewarned.

the Law of Demeter

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:15:30 +0000

More formally, the Law of Demeter for functions requires that a method M of an object O may only invoke the methods of the following kinds of objects:

1. O itself
2. M's parameters
3. any objects created/instantiated within M
4. O's direct component objects
5. a global variable, accessible by O, in the scope of M

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Demeter

Silly Dev jokes

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:22:56 +0000

copied from: http://blogs.adobe.com/charles/2010/05/ill_trade_you_a_joke_for_a_book.h...

By Jeremy - 6:01 PM on May 20, 2010

There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.
By Richie - 12:34 AM on May 24, 2010

A programmers high-school girlfriend is like the square root of -2…irrational and imaginary.
By gem_reader - 4:29 PM on May 26, 2010

“Knock, knock.”
“Who’s there?”
very long pause…..
“Java.”
By Borek Bernard - 2:32 AM on May 27, 2010

Rather a geek joke but a good one:
Schrodinger’s cat walks into a bar…and doesn’t
By codeabonde - 12:27 PM on June 1, 2010

In C we had to code our own bugs. In C++ we can inherit them.
By Yazbar - 1:11 PM on June 3, 2010

Q: How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. That’s a hardware problem.
By Hoover - 1:20 PM on June 4, 2010

My other car is a CDR
By mastersson - 9:12 AM on June 8, 2010

Q: How many IBM Processors does it take to execute a job?
A: Four. Three to hold it down, and one to rip it’s head off.
By Penny - 8:15 PM on July 12, 2010

Why do programmers always mix up Halloween and Christmas?
Because Oct 31 equals Dec 25.
By James hall - 10:23 PM on July 14, 2010

a sql query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up and says “can i join you?”

fun with closures

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:20:28 +0000

I got burned by not being able to answer the question -'what are closures?" with much of anything. It was pretty embarrassing, seeing as I use them all day. :)

I had a decent enough explanation about passing code blocks around, but what I forgot to mention was the 'yield' keyword (which is a bit like talking about soup and forgetting to mention that you have to add water).

Also, I started trying to write up an example (like I have seen Brian Guthrie do so many times) and couldn't come up with a good one fast enough.

Anyway, I am decidedly a pragmatist and I don't get as academic as some of my more CS-based brethren, but I decided then to starting boning up on good examples of what closure is so I can do myself justice next time someone asks me that question.

so I found this (by some dude named Paul):

ask me again, Aslan!

the ago function for writing on a whiteboard

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:08:08 +0000

So, if you are ever somewhere where they ask you to write code on the wall with dry-erase marker, then you are covered.

Me, I never realized how much I love using a keyboard and watching the letters I type appear on the screen. Writing by hand is for suckers and/or poets.

and the tests:

ruby to_boolean function

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:49:11 +0000

UPDATE: Erik points out that we are changing the input parameter, which is true. Point well taken. New version below:

paginator class

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:58:07 +0000

push your git tags

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:57:02 +0000

like so:

  git push origin --tags

hobbits in holes and chipmunks in a phonebooth

Fri, 21 May 2010 18:01:38 +0000

When writing unit tests, for unit/quantity measurements it is important to do the right thing. The rule is that you must test against either hobbits or chipmunks, in their appropriate quantities.

Also, there is such a thing as shaving yaks. I do it all day. :)

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yak_shaving

gitosis: how to add new repository

Fri, 21 May 2010 17:41:35 +0000

gitosis: how to add new repository

I assume that you already have your gitosis-admin repository working (this is described elsewhere).

1. cd gitosis-admin && git pull – enter your gitosis administrative repository and ensure it is up-to-date
2. $EDITOR gitosis.conf
3. add [group newreponame] section (newreponame is the name of your new repository being added); add yourself with members = yourlogin@yourhost line; also add writable = newreponame line:

          [group newreponame]
          members = yourlogin@yourhost
          writable = newreponame

4. based on my assumption of a correctly setup gitosis-admin repository, you should already have the appropriate public key in the keydir directory, but if not – copy your user’s ssh public key to keydir in the form of yourlogin@yourhostname.pub, then do git add keydir/yourlogin@yourhostname.pub
5. git commit -am ‘new repository: newreponame’; git push;
6. now that you have the new repo permissions configured, let’s actually create it. Navigate to the directory holding the files of your project (e.g. cd ~/newreponame), and do git init; git add . – this initializes empty git repository, and then adds all the files to it.
7. git commit -m ‘initial commit’
8. git remote add origin ssh://gitosis@yourGitosisServerName/newreponame.git
9. git push ––all
10. final thing: git config ––add branch.master.remote origin && git config ––add branch.master.merge refs/heads/master; alternatively, cd .git && $EDITOR config, and then add these lines:

          [branch "master"]
          remote = origin
          merge = refs/heads/master

Without these lines, you won’t be able to git pull.

copied from: http://bogdan.org.ua/2009/02/20/gitosis-how-to-add-new-repository.html

boot rb for rails 3 on heroku

Thu, 20 May 2010 07:43:55 +0000

copied from someone awesome at http://gist.github.com/368681

418 means I am a teapot

Tue, 18 May 2010 22:58:42 +0000

HTTP Error 418 - I'm a teapot

418 Status Code Explained

The HTCPCP server is a teapot. The responding entity may be short and stout.

Why it occurs

This code was defined as one of the traditional IETF April Fools' jokes, in RFC 2324, Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol, and is not expected to be implemented by actual HTTP servers.

Fixing 418 Error Code

This is a type of a http error and If you are monitoring your website by 100pulse, we will intimate whenever you encounter 418 status code error through e-mail or Short message service.

use rails revision as directory for amazon S3 asset upload

Tue, 18 May 2010 21:51:56 +0000

copied from this excellent video - http://www.bestechvideos.com/2009/06/26/sd-ruby-episode-63-earning-an-a-...

Use this script to upload all your assets to S3 using REVISION to auto expire assets on a new deploy.

etags sample for rails app

Tue, 18 May 2010 21:24:25 +0000

def show
  @article = Article.find(params[:id]) 
  
  if stale?(:etag => @article, :last_modified => @article.created_at.utc)
    @statistics = @article.really_expensive_call
    respond_to do |format|
      #etc
    end
  end
end

gzip for dummies

Tue, 18 May 2010 21:13:00 +0000

GZIP To Compress Files:

The syntax for Gzip is

gzip filename
The resulting file will be filename.gz - notice the .gz file extension. If you were compressing a tar file for example, the resulting file would be filename.tar.gz, and so on.

To achieve better compression, you can use the -9 option. (i.e. gzip -9 filename) This will take a little longer, but will result in your compressed file taking up less space.

GUNZIP To Expand Files:

To uncompress a file, the sister to Gzip is Gunzip. To uncompress a file, simply type

gunzip filename

Just like any UNIX program, full usage instructions for Gzip can be found using the man tool. Simply type man gzipat the prompt for full instructions.

get your git here

Mon, 17 May 2010 22:46:55 +0000

http://code.google.com/p/git-osx-installer/

Run the git-1.6.4.4-intel-leopard.pkg (A basic installer. Note: You’ll need administrative privileges.)

Complete the Installation

Open up a terminal

Change directories to the mounted image

bash$ cd /Volumes/Git\ 1.6.4.4\ Intel\ Leopard/
bash$ ls
README.txt setup git PATH for non-terminal programs.sh
git-1.6.4.4-intel-leopard.pkg uninstall.sh

bash$ ./setup\ git\ PATH\ for\ non-terminal\ programs.sh

Run the shell script (last line above)

compiling mysql and getting the gem installed correctly

Mon, 17 May 2010 22:45:06 +0000

Download your preferred MYSQL version from the community download site. If you’re on Snow Leopard, you may want to install the 64-bit version.

Install mysql via dmg or compile it from source.

Type ‘which mysql_config’ on the terminal to locate said config. Take note of this location as we’ll use it on the next step.

Install the mysql gem with the command below. If the location for your mysql config is different with the one below, use that instead.

sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-Os -arch x86_64 -fno-common" \
gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config

worked for me!

thanks to http://www.sylv3rblade.com/2010/04/installing-the-mysql-gem-on-os-x-10-6...

custom terminal colors

Mon, 17 May 2010 19:42:19 +0000

copied from http://y-draw.com/blog/articles/2009/11/20/mac-os-x-terminal-configuration/

make sqlite work with snow leopard

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:14:01 +0000

copied from:

http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=nl&forumId=...

mac osx screenshots

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:33:48 +0000

Taking Screenshots in Mac OS X

Shortcuts

* Command-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it as a file on the desktop
* Command-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop
* Command-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop
* Command-Control-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it to the clipboard
* Command-Control-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it to the clipboard
* Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it to the clipboard

In Leopard, the following keys can be held down while selecting an area (via Command-Shift-4 or Command-Control-Shift-4):

* Space, to lock the size of the selected region and instead move it when the mouse moves
* Shift, to resize only one edge of the selected region
* Option, to resize the selected region with its center as the anchor point

fun with jquery

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:46:51 +0000

more on status codes

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:54:52 +0000

Status Codes

Full detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes

* 100 - Continue
* 101 - Switching Protocols
* 200 - OK
* 201 - Created
* 202 - Accepted
* 203 - Non-Authoritative Information
* 204 - No Content
* 205 - Reset Content
* 206 - Partial Content
* 300 - Multiple Choices
* 301 - Moved Permanently
* 302 - Found
* 303 - See Other
* 304 - Not Modified
* 305 - Use Proxy
* 306 - No Longer Used
* 307 - Temporary Redirect
* 400 - Bad Request
* 401 - Not Authorised
* 402 - Payment Required
* 403 - Forbidden
* 404 - Not Found
* 405 - Method Not Allowed
* 406 - Not Acceptable
* 407 - Proxy Authentication Required
* 408 - Request Timeout
* 409 - Conflict
* 410 - Gone
* 411 - Length Required
* 412 - Precondition Failed
* 413 - Request Entity Too Large
* 414 - Request URI Too Long
* 415 - Unsupported Media Type
* 416 - Requested Range Not Satisfiable
* 417 - Expectation Failed
* 500 - Internal Server Error
* 501 - Not Implemented
* 502 - Bad Gateway
* 503 - Service Unavailable
* 504 - Gateway Timeout
* 505 - HTTP Version Not Supported

get your ip from rails console

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:13:22 +0000

`ifconfig -m en1`.scan(/inet[\s]([\d]+\.[\d]+\.[\d]+\.[\d]+)/).flatten.first

my stacker class

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:21:52 +0000

For anyone that uses FusionCharts, this little class may be very helpful.

It is for building xml files to feed FusionCharts 'Stacked' charts, and it has already saved my ass.

The only kicker is that you need your own 'pad_month' function to add a pad zero to any single digits in your day.

So get rid of the Utils module and stick in this pad_month method and you should be golden.

def pad_month(this)
  if this.to_i < 10
    return "0#{this}"
  else
    return "#{this}"
  end
end

my little geocoder class for Ruby on Rails

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:20:33 +0000

works like a charm.

and is used like this:


ll = GetLatLong.new
ll.address=address_value
ll.city=city_value
ll.state=state_value
ll.zip=zip_value
puts ll.run
send_this[6]=ll.latitude
send_this[7]=ll.longitude

Nice and easy.

I had to check in today

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:45:43 +0000

What an end of the year it has been. Highs and lows. Mostly highs, I guess. :)

I have been married now for 6 months, and it feels great. I think I am more inspired than ever to create a smart, sustainable and above all creative life for myself along with my awesome partner Lavinia. I have been really digging in with Rails over the last few months. This brings me to my 3rd year straight of Ruby on Rails all the time.

After a career that was at one point exclusively contract for a number of years, I have been a full-time Director of Engineering for almost 2 consecutive years and in that time I have built a best-in-class Rails app for tracking digital pre-paid card sales that has literally changed the landscape in our class of business. Now that we are almost out of beta, it is time for me to start looking for new challenges.

Let's hope the next few weeks find me a great new company that is either near Santa Monica or ready to let me work from home. My life is Ruby and I won't disappoint!

thanks

krister

copy your rsa.pub key

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:31:37 +0000

cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | pbcopy

from ~/.

I was looking for this today.

netbooks with SSD

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:17:45 +0000

zareason sells netbooks with ssd.

http://www.zareason.com/

sweet!

the thundering herd and the dining philosophers

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:25:31 +0000

The 'Thundering Herd':

The thundering herd problem occurs when a large number of processes waiting for an event are awoken when that event occurs, but only one process is able to proceed at a time. After the processes wake up, they all demand the resource and a decision must be made as to which process can continue. After the decision is made the remaining processes are put back to sleep, only to wake up again to request access to the resource.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundering_herd_problem)

The 'Dining Philosophers':

The dining philosophers problem is summarized as five philosophers sitting at a table doing one of two things: eating or thinking. While eating, they are not thinking, and while thinking, they are not eating. The five philosophers sit at a circular table with a large bowl of spaghetti in the center. A fork is placed in between each pair of adjacent philosophers, and as such, each philosopher has one fork to his left and one fork to his right. As spaghetti is difficult to serve and eat with a single fork, it is assumed that a philosopher must eat with two forks. Each philosopher can only use the forks on his immediate left and immediate right.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dining_philosophers_problem)

round to function for ruby float class

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:25:10 +0000

I found this on a blog post somewhere, and it works really well. If you need to round your decimals to precision, this is your friend. It's a method extension for the standard float class in Ruby on Rails. Just save it into your lib/ folder as whatever you want, and 'require' it in as needed - like so:

  require 'float_helper'

I called it 'float_helper.rb'.

Behold:

used here to great effect as a simple round to integer:

  unaccounted_sales = x["value"].to_f.round_to(0)

but you can specify the precision as you like.

Enjoy!

a little scraper rake task

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:16:20 +0000

Written for no good reason, mostly just to play with hpricot. Good times.

the hackingtosh

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:01:16 +0000

I am always intrigued by new slang terms, especially ones that apply to tech.

Behold the new hackingtosh, linked here: http://lifehacker.com/software/hack-attack/build-a-hackintosh-mac-for-un...

Which is really just the concept of putting Mac OSX on a laptop that was not originally an Apple. I already have my MacBook Pro which is more or less awesome, but I do plan on picking up an Ubuntu (Linux) netbook eventually as a travel laptop, and I have my eye on this one:

http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=92&osCsid=d482...

Holy lowered price point, Batman!

status codes 101

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:47:54 +0000

Ah, the old http status code. Very nice. I recently built my first pro-grade web service and had some problems figuring out the status codes. Here are some tips from my friend happyfrenchy2:

Usually I write my rest service so that a problem with the parameters (wrong ID, not enough params, etc) returns a 400 (bad request), a auth failure (wrong signature) returns a 403 (forbidden) and an internal problem (couldn’t access DB for instance) returns a 503 (server error). Return code 500 should be when the error happens before your code was even reached (like the server or web-server is down).

Very helpful. This is what that looks like, in the create method of the /installs web service:

sudo port command not found

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:32:17 +0000

sudo: port: command not found

are you getting this error? Add the below to your ~/.bash_profile -

export PATH=$PATH:/opt/local/bin
export MANPATH=$MANPATH:/opt/local/share/man
export INFOPATH=$INFOPATH:/opt/local/share/info

and then run

sudo port -d selfupdate

you should be fine (for Mac Leopard 10.5)

this worked for me

Fri, 01 May 2009 18:56:59 +0000

recursevly remove .svn files from an existing repo.

If you need to take a project out of scm, you can run this bash script from the top folder - and it will remove all .svn folders recursively.

Works well for
- changing an svn checkout into and svn export
- switching from svn to git

find . -type d -name '.svn' -exec rm -rf {} \;

tunnel of love

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:43:53 +0000

This little puppy is my tunnel of love. Connecting to SQL databases just keeps getting more complicated. :)

ssh -L 8888:localhost:3306 rails@staging.gmgdev.railsmachina.com

good stuff on remote rsync

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:15:58 +0000

Making remote copies

What if you want to copy files offsite to a remote host? No problem -- all you need to do is add the host and user information. So, for instance, if you want to copy the same directory to a remote host, you'd use:

rsync -avhe ssh --delete /home/user/dir/ user@remote.host.com:dir/

If you want to know how fast the transfer is going, and how much remains to be copied, add the --progress option:

rsync --progress -avhe ssh --delete /home/user/dir/ user@remote.host.com:dir/

If you don't want to be prompted for a password each time rsync makes a connection -- and you don't -- make sure that you have rsync set up to log in using an SSH key rather than a password. To do this, create an SSH key on the local machine using ssh-keygen -t dsa, and press Enter when prompted for a passphrase. After the key is created, use ssh-copy-id -i .ssh/id_dsa.pub user@remote.host.com to copy the public key to the remote host.

What if you need to bring back some of the files you copied using rsync? Use the following syntax:

rsync -avze ssh remote.host.com:/home/user/dir/ /local/path/

The z option compresses data during the transfer. If the file you are copying exists on the local host, then rsync will just leave it alone -- the same as if you were copying files to a remote host.
Wrapping it up with a script

Once you've figured out what directory or directories you want to sync up, and you've gotten the commands you need to sync everything, it's easy to wrap it all up with a simple script. Here's a short sample:

rsync --progress -avze ssh --delete /home/user/bin/ user@remote.host.com:bin/
rsync --progress -avze ssh --delete /home/user/local/data/ user@remote.host.com:local/data/
rsync --progress -avze ssh --delete /home/user/.tomboy/ user@remote.host.com:/.tomboy/

also remember to to use the --dry-run option with your commands

** good stuff on remote rsync **

add textmate to your Mac 10.5 path

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:49:02 +0000

This is the puppy that worked for me:

sudo ln -s /Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/Resources/mate /bin/mate

** add textmate to your Mac 10.5 path **

this site rocks

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:40:05 +0000

http://layouts.ironmyers.com/

Awesome free css layouts? Ok!

i missed writing sql

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:17:04 +0000

Here is the first stored procedure that I have written in long time, fully finished. This puppy runs like a charm.

Top 5 sql query with other included

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:25:13 +0000

Top 5 sql query

This week has been all about the SQL. Here is some fun I had with it. This is dynamic sql, and you are seeing the end product - this was originally built as a find_by_sql call, and of course had bind variables that you don't see here - but you get the idea.

an old pivot table report procedure

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:24:53 +0000

Back in the day, I wrote reports for Rupert himself at FOX IT. Here is an old query from those days (written in T-SQL for .NET Reporting Services):

git ftw

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:00:18 +0000

copied from:
Cleanly Migrate Your Subversion Repository To a GIT Repository

The first thing we need to do is create a users file that maps all your SVN users to your GIT users. Just make a file on your Desktop named 'users.txt'. Map the users using this format:

jmaddox = Jon Maddox
bigpappa = Brian Biggs

Simple. Now here are the commands you'll run. I'll explain them below.

mkdir my_blog_tmp
cd my_blog_tmp
git-svn init http://code.yoursite.net/my_blog/trunk/ --no-metadata
git config svn.authorsfile ~/Desktop/users.txt
git-svn fetch

The first two are self explanatory, we're making a new directory for the temporary repository. The second command initializes the directory as a git-svn hybrid thing and points the origin at your SVN repository. The flag, --no-metadata, tells GIT to leave all the SVN details behind (not the commit log). The fourth command tells GIT to remap all the SVN users to GIT users when it sucks down the source and history. The last command actually does the fetching.

Ok, so now after a few LONG minutes, your source is all there. Do a git log to see that your users have been mapped. Sweet!

Now you just have one last step. You need to clone this repository. Why do we do this? When doing a normal git clone it will take everything we want from the temporary repository, while leaving behind all the SVN cruft that was there to support the git-svn stuff.

git clone my_blog_tmp my_blog

gem install id3lib ruby mac command

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:37:32 +0000

you need this to install the ruby id3lib library under mac if you installed the actual id3lib library with MacPorts:

ARCHFLAGS="-arch i386" gem install id3lib-ruby -- --build-flags --with-opt-dir=/opt/local
Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

Yetii we love it

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:45:12 +0000

http://www.kminek.pl/lab/yetii/

It rocks. No nonsense, full-featured, light, single js file. Follow the instructions. Remember to instantiate your object in the 'view' file - like so:

where you can actually set the 'active' tab. Neat!

For all your html-based tab / dynamic page needs.

Streamclip we love it

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:49:13 +0000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG_Streamclip

I needed to rip an old live dvd from about 5 years ago with an archaic encryption and this little puppy did it - on my Intel MacBook Pro. I also had to buy the http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/ Quicktime encoder. Leave it to QT to fleece you every change they get. The streamclip utility works really well and will allow to you crop video - something QT would be happy to charge you another $30 for (Quicktime 'Pro'). Don't do it. You need the mpeg2 encoder but don't buy the Quicktime Pro - it is more or less worthless.

more info for streamclip - http://www.squared5.com/

Mac vs PC oy the controversy

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:33:08 +0000

I stumbled across this ( http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/116923 ) story today, and as is increasingly the case, the comments are far more interesting than the article. It seems that people have very strong opinions about Microsoft and Vista. The general consensus - most people HATE Vista. I am one of those people, not so much because I know too much about it - other than it is a resource hog, is very slow, and was basically conceived of in order to sell more 'stuff' - as opposed to meeting any sort of concrete need.

Anyway, here it is in a nutshell - if you want user-friendly, totally reliable, works right out of the box, get a Mac. I couldn't possibly use anything other than my MacBook Pro for the software development I do. Linux is a relatively close second. Windows is way behind the pack.

So that's my two cents - Microsoft? Mostly just a piece of sh1t.

I always tell this story at work - basically a few years back I wrote reports for Fox IT and I had to install the whole .NET stack - information server (IS), the .NET platform, and then Reporting Services platform (a branch of Visual Studio). It literally took me a week. After about 6 attempted installs that went wrong for one reason or another - adding patches in wrong order, finding the right MS subscription disc for the newest RS install, wrestling the right admin privileges from the network admins, etc. A whole week.

You can walk into an Apple store, buy a MacBook off the shelf, download the latest Ruby/Rails stack and be up and running by maybe right after lunch time. There is just no comparison. Of course you have to write your own reports (as there is no real reporting platform yet for Rails) but there WILL be, and for now writing reports with rails is already pretty easy.

mysql 5.0 syntax for the UPDATE SELECT

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:36:25 +0000

It's pretty funky stuff. The trick is to alias the table you are updating.

minor league pivot query

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:33:23 +0000

This would be a pivot query 101 kind of snippet. They teach this in SQL kindergarten - I only imagine, of course, because I never went.

The use case: it's a single table, with values grouped by partner_id and two enums for revplan_type. You need a variance report. What do you do?

how to call a stored routine from Rails

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:43:41 +0000

So you wanna call your own stored routine, eh?
Here ya go - the right syntax. I read on a blog somewhere that you send any command to the database through a .find_by_sql command, but that turned out to be a load of baloney. Is there anything Ruby + ActiveRecord can't do?

Clothing, I mean transaction support is optional.

MySQL 5.0 SP with Cursor Logic

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:43:27 +0000

I have written a bunch of SPs over the years (stored procedure, as I learned it, but MySQL calls them Stored Routines - SRs?). I even have my best/largest/most complicated SP ever linked here at migration189.

That one was of course written in PL/SQL, and I have now officially moved out of the world of Oracle and into the world of MySQL 5.0 - which is sort of like moving from New York City to San Jose (weather notwithstanding).

Anyway, I found precious little RECENT coverage on how MySQL implemented it's 'stored routines', and I got to tell ya it took some digging - never mind trying to figure out how cursors work. MySQL, btw, has an ok documentation section but it is mediocre at best, somehow following in the fragmented example of the Rails community in what seems to be the curse of the open-source ADD.

So in the spirit of this site which has always been to keep pieces of code lying around that I may use later - here is my very first MySQL sp, which does nothing really useful except use a cursor to insert values into a table. Come back next week for the syntax needed to use parameters, lol.

Other things to notice - you have to declare a separate handler for pulling out of a cursor loop when you run out of records (does anyone else remember fondly how easy ADO recordsets were to use?) but other than that things look all right in MySQL land. Bye Oracle!

ps, gotta give a shout out to http://www.razorsql.com/ which so far has been easy to use and has served as stand-in IDE for Toad, which is what I was used to.

UPDATE: I now use SEQUEL PRO. (MAR 2011)

Perl linux and database backups

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:52:42 +0000

I got to tell ya, most of the greatest people don't get the recognition they deserve. Open Source is all about everyone putting in what they got. So mosey on over to http://worldcommunity.com/opensource/ and tell Peter Brown that his Perl-based mysql backup script works like a charm.

It is very easy to set up, so I won't go too far into it - just download and follow the instructions. I also opted in to for the ftp push, so after the script dumps out a mysql txt file for every table, it will tar it, zip it, and push it to the ftp server of your choice. Cool.

This is where it gets tricky - I pulled this little gem out of a comment on Peter Brown's site. This script leaves you with a directory of txt files - most of us are used to the single .sql file of the whole db, so getting at a full restore from a bunch of txt files does not sound fun - until linux jumps in for the rescue.

Get this, just untar it:

tar -xf bak.mysql.2009-01-20_14.55.30_.tar.gz

Move into that directory:

cd bak.mysql.2009-01-20_14.55.30

and hit it with the cat xargs combo, shooting it right into mysql:

find . -name "*.txt" -print | xargs -t --replace cat {} | mysql your_db_name -u your_db_user -p -h subdir.yoursite.com

and you're done! sweet, huh?

p.s. - the -h switch at the end (-h subdir.yoursite.com) is not always necessary, if it is localhost you can leave it out.Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

right joins versus the subquery

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:37:38 +0000

If you're anything like me, you are a serious pragmatist. I like to get at the problem immediately, and if there are shortcuts, then we have to weight short-term versus long-term gain before we can choose sides.

Here is a great SQL example of this principle.

The old-school way to write this query would be with the subquery, like so:

I am simply trying to verify that I have not seen sales for the 'Ralphs' retailer come in yet, despite that 'merchant' value already being present in the retailers table.

I know, it's a little confusing, but bear with me.

One might also write:

Neither of these run very well. Without some added indexing, the first query won't return anything at all before it times out, and the second one runs ok but it is about 3 to 4 times slower than the right join (below).

There you have it - right joins FTW.

scoping for dummies

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:30:39 +0000

I hope I don't have to explain what scoping is. It is sort of analogous to the 'parameterized' in 'parameterized query'. Basically, once you start getting all hot and heavy with active record, you don't want to have write a specific model based routine to match EVERY query use-case, so enter scoping.

Here is an example:

Go nuts, people! The possibilities are endless.

Sample class with a unit test

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:40:15 +0000

Also from a job interview a while back.

Here is the class that they gave me, which I extended -

And the unit test I wrote for it -

Good times!

UPDATE: There is a small issue with the original class, so it does not work out of the box. There is a problem with the partition method, so feel free to fork and fix it.

Do the Alexa Dance aka a review of Alexa reviews

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:22:10 +0000

I won't name names, or link links as it were, but ever since I discovered my own Alexa ranking(s) I have been obsessed with understanding how to optimize them - and as a matter of course I have read quite a few blogs about it. Without succumbing to the cliche of promising '20 Ways to Game Your Ranking', I will share what I know.

The only people that matter are the users that have installed the Alexa toolbar from http://www.alexa.com/site/download.

The traffic to your site of these users with the toolbar installed over the last 3 months is what determines your rank. So at the most basic level, the logical thing to do is bump up marketing (really?) and hope that a good percentage of those new clicks are Alexa users. This may be effective, but it is also wasteful to some degree.

It is also worth noting that the Alexa user base reputedly skews very much towards webmasters, so another good way to attract a stronger percentage of Alexa users relative to your total user base is to target content towards webmasters, like a laser. You zap in their clicks with post titles like '20 Sure Fire Tips on How to Be An Alexa Jedi' or 'I Made It Into the Alexa Top 1000 - In Only 10 Minutes!'. Of course you also need to have real stuff for them to read, or else the Jedi jokes can get your Force cut off. Anyway, my angle is that I work with Ruby on Rails, I post about Ruby On Rails, and I am a webmaster - so there's your targeted audience.

That being said, I have started a new category (http://www.digbox.net/index.php/alexa/) to track my newfound obsession. And if you are reading this and haven't already installed your very own toolbar then you don't deserve to be reading this, and I'll probably cry myself to sleep tonight. I hope you're happy.

Tune in next week for more observations.

polymorphic user list class part II

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:41:23 +0000

This is part II of a series.
start here: http://blog.kristeraxel.com/2008/12/polymorphic-user-list-class/

add aggregates to a group by

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:02:08 +0000

Pull in YTD aggregates, along with the numbers grouped by month - good example of a self-join as well as a 'derived table' which in this example is called 'counted'.

select s.product, count(s.serial_number) number_sold, year(s.item_date) y, month(s.item_date) m, counted.units
from sales s
join (select product, count(serial_number) units from sales group by product) counted on s.product = counted.product
group by s.product, year(s.item_date), month(s.item_date)
order by s.product, year(s.item_date), month(s.item_date)
Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

Tableless models and a checkbox collection

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:44:01 +0000

I have always loved the sound of a table-less model. It feels so dirty. Here is one from the school of hard knocks, known as the Merchant model:

class Merchant < ActiveRecord::Base
def self.columns() @columns ||= []; end

def self.column(name, sql_type = nil, default = nil, null = true)
columns << ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::Column.new(name.to_s, default, sql_type.to_s, null)
end

column :merchant, :string
validates_presence_of :merchant

def self.get_edit_values(page_id)
new_arr = []
Summary.find_by_sql(["
SELECT merchant, CASE LENGTH(selected) > 0 WHEN TRUE THEN 1 ELSE 0 END value FROM
(SELECT value merchant, merchant selected
FROM
(SELECT merchant from merchant_pages where page_id=?) signed_up
RIGHT JOIN (SELECT DISTINCT MERCHANT value FROM retailers) distinct_m
ON distinct_m. value = signed_up. merchant) new_alias
ORDER BY merchant
", page_id.to_i]).each do |x|
new_arr << [x.merchant, x.value]
end
new_arr
end

def self.get_values
Summary.find_by_sql(["
SELECT DISTINCT MERCHANT value FROM retailers order by merchant
"]).each do |x|
@columns << x.value
end
@columns
end

end

Of course, it does hit the database, but there is no Merchants table, per se, there is just this model. What returns from a 'SELECT * FROM MERCHANTS' is the distinct selection for the value of 'merchant' from the Retailers table. These come in from the partners, and they are very consistent. I can't tell you how helpful this is. The system auto-magically created a Target.com that showed up immediately alongside it's older bother, Target. Watch out, however, for cache-ing concerns that will necessarily stem from this approach in terms of scale - in this case, that was not a concern because we have a very small (but highly lucrative) user base.

This is the corresponding controller code. This is from the pages_controller, because there is no direct merchants_controller.

def update
@page = Page.find(params[:id])

if @page.update_attributes(params[:page])
if dump_all_merchant_pages(@page.id)
params[:merchants].each do |p|
create_or_update_merchant_page(p[0].to_s, @page.id, true)
end
end
flash[:notice] = 'Page was successfully updated.'
redirect_to pages_path
else
render :action => 'edit'
end
end

the functions, from the bottom of the page:

private
def dump_all_merchant_pages(page_id)
Page.find(page_id).merchant_pages.each do |x|
x.destroy
end
true
end

def create_or_update_merchant_page(m, p, val)
x = MerchantPage.find_by_sql(["SELECT merchant
FROM merchant_pages
WHERE merchant = ?
AND page_id = ? LIMIT 1", m, p])
if !x.first
x = MerchantPage.new(:merchant => m, :page_id => p)
x.save
else
if !val
x.destroy
end
true
end
end

Finally, the _page partial:

form_for ([@page]) do |f|
Page Name
f.text_field :title, :size => 60
Main Content
f.text_area :page_body, :cols => 100
Locator Footer (Link back to Partner homepage)
f.text_area :page_footer, :cols => 100, :rows => 5
Merchants
ul class="Merchant-list"
if button_name=="Save Changes"
@merchants.each do |m|
li INPUT type="checkbox" name="merchants[<=m[0]%>][]" <=m[1]=="1" ? "checked" : "" label m[0].to_s /label
end
else
@merchants.each do |m|
li INPUT type="checkbox" name="merchants[<=m>][]"/> <=m.to_s /label
end
end
/ul
f.submit button_name
endOriginal post blogged on codeboxer.com.

The old INSERT SELECT syntax example

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:29:37 +0000

A good example of SQL's favorite timesaver.

INSERT INTO `evo_bloggroups`
SELECT '4',
bloggroup_group_ID,
bloggroup_ismember,
bloggroup_perm_poststatuses,
bloggroup_perm_edit,
bloggroup_perm_delpost,
bloggroup_perm_comments,
bloggroup_perm_cats,
bloggroup_perm_properties,
bloggroup_perm_admin,
bloggroup_perm_media_upload,
bloggroup_perm_media_browse,
bloggroup_perm_media_change
FROM `evo_bloggroups`
WHERE bloggroup_blog_ID = 1
Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

polymorphic user list class

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:15:08 +0000

I wrote this for a job interview that never panned out. Tune in next week for the matching User class (linked here).
Question: why do interviewers often admit to not being very technical, yet continue on to ask complicated questions and become bewildered as a consequence?

And furthermore, how good is the guy they hire if no one knows how to talk to him? Ah well, it is almost Christmas.

Ruby find_by_sql and a select statement

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:05:03 +0000

This is how I still do things. I don't think it's terribly old-fashioned. Databases are still faster than web servers, aren't they?

Summary.find_by_sql(["
(select 'GMG' name, 0 id, 1 orderby
from partners where 1=1)
union
(select display_val name, p.id, 2 orderby
from partners p where active = 1)
order by orderby, name, id"
])

Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

DREAMHOST Worst host evar

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:24:05 +0000

Dreamhost is also pretty crappy, if you need Ruby on Rails support. Why does everyone advertise RoR and then not support it?

It looks like a decent Hostmonster style host, with a snazzy interface, but at the end of it here were the problems:

Terrible SVN support; let me say that again - SVN kind of sucks already, but I ended up with a bunch of 500 errors, and I don't need anyone to help SVN suck more than it already does.

SOME good wiki stuff, but it was out of date, was NOT supported (see above), so I got frustratingly 80% close to a real capistrano deploy and then could not finish because were server compatibility issues (an old Ruby version) and without direct shell access I was fecocked. Then my SVN got corrupted. Fun!

With Dreamhost, if you aren't paying for a hosting service, you can't even manage your domain forwarding.

So I am still on the lookout for a good Ruby host and I am not any closer.

As a recap - DREAMHOST is the worst Ruby on Rails hosting service EVER! They are, of course, right there next to Joyent, who also has a large home in Crapistan.

JOYENT IS THE WORST

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:16:35 +0000

CONTRARY TO ANYTHING I HAVE SAID PREVIOUSLY, Joyent offers some of the worst customer service around. JOYENT has no idea what is going on. They don't even read the support tickets, their documentation is old and useless. They are a dinosaur.
I imagine their clients are all catching on right now and starting to jump off of that sinking ship. I pulled my last account off of this horrible Rails hosting service this year, I will NEVER go back.

I hate bad service. Bad value, too.

asynchronous javascript FTW

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:54:39 +0000

link_to_remote(name, options = {}, html_options = {})

Returns a link to a remote action defined by options[:url] (using the url_for format) that's called in the background using XMLHttpRequest. The result of that request can then be inserted into a DOM object whose id can be specified with options[:update]. Usually, the result would be a partial prepared by the controller with either render_partial or render_partial_collection.

Examples:

link_to_remote "Delete this post", :update => "posts", :url => { :action => "destroy", :id => post.id }
link_to_remote(image_tag("refresh"), :update => "emails", :url => { :action => "list_emails" })
You can also specify a hash for options[:update] to allow for easy redirection of output to an other DOM element if a server-side error occurs:

Example:

link_to_remote "Delete this post",
:url => { :action => "destroy", :id => post.id },
:update => { :success => "posts", :failure => "error" }

Optionally, you can use the options[: position] parameter to influence how the target DOM element is updated. It must be one of :before, :top, :bottom, or :after.

By default, these remote requests are processed asynchronously during which various JavaScript callbacks can be triggered (for progress indicators and the likes). All callbacks get access to the request object, which holds the underlying XMLHttpRequest.

To access the server response, use request.responseText, to find out the HTTP status, use request.status.

Example:
link_to_remote word,
:url => { :action => "undo", :n => word_counter },
:complete => "undoRequestCompleted(request)"

The callbacks that may be specified are (in order):
:loading: Called when the remote document is being loaded with data by the browser.
:loaded: Called when the browser has finished loading the remote document.
:interactive: Called when the user can interact with the remote document, even though it has not finished loading.
:success: Called when the XMLHttpRequest is completed, and the HTTP status code is in the 2XX range.
:failure: Called when the XMLHttpRequest is completed, and the HTTP status code is not in the 2XX range.
:complete: Called when the XMLHttpRequest is complete (fires after success/failure if they are present).

You can further refine :success and :failure by adding additional callbacks for specific status codes:

Example:

link_to_remote word,
:url => { :action => "action" },
404 => "alert('Not found...? Wrong URL...?')",
:failure => "alert('HTTP Error ' + request.status + '!')"

A status code callback overrides the success/failure handlers if present.

Lighthouse API integration in 10 minutes or less

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 10:45:06 +0000

As a second part in this series, I am going to talk about Lighthouse for a second. They rock. I built up a calendar app based on their API and the Ruby calendar_helper, and it barely took me a day. True story. I ended up using an API token, and I learned a lot about a lib/ based connection object, very interesting.

Here are a few caveats:
Don't mess with the root class too much. It was not really necessary for most of what I had to do. This is actually one of the cases where it makes sense to load the logic into the controller (a little bit). Plus there isn't much more meat on the bone, so to speak, the root class covers 100% of a ludicrously simple back-end.
All Lighthouse database objects are not created equal. Tickets are king, and everything else is nothing. I will explain more later - just don't try to get picky with your call for Milestones. All I have ever been able to do is return a simple dump.

Installation: all I had to do was click through to the GIT repository. From there click lib/, and then lighthouse.rb. Cut and paste the code you see into a lighthouse.rb file in your lib/ folder. Everything you need is right there.

code snippet from my controller action:

if @project
#calculate i differential
month_now = Time.now.month
year_now = Time.now.year
i = ((@year - year_now)*12)+ (@month - month_now).abs
if i == 1
@tickets = @project.tickets(:q => "created:'before #{Time.now.day} day#{Time.now.day>1 ? 's' : ''} ago'")
elsif i > 1
@tickets = @project.tickets(:q => "created:'before #{i-1} months ago'")
else
@tickets = @project.tickets(:q => "created:'since 1 month ago'")
end
@milestones = @project.milestones(:q => "due_on:'#{@month}/#{@year}'")
else
false
end

Thankfully, you can get picky with your call for Tickets. That is where the meat of the API is. The text based date searching is pretty cool, because you get a hard limit of 30 rows returned from your query, so you need to be granular enough to catch only what you want.

This is a remote controller action that I use to get info about a particular ticket:

def ticket_body
ticket_id = params[:id]
@project = Lighthouse::Project.find(:first)
ticket = Lighthouse::Ticket.find ticket_id, :params => {:project_id => @project.id}
out_string = ""
#counter = 0
ticket.versions.each do |version|
this_body = version.body_html
out_string << "on #{(version.created_at - (60 * 60 * 8)).strftime("%m/%d at %I:%M%p")} #{get_owner_name(version.user_id)} said: #{this_body ? this_body : "status change"}"
end
render :text => out_string
end

Notice the 8 hour time differential from UTC code, and that you have to iterate through the ticket.versions to pull out the notes (thanks to Lighthouse help staff for that one).

And then, of course, I have this at the top of my controller:

def initialize
Lighthouse.account = 'xxx'
Lighthouse.token = '1111919192384584XXXXXXXXXXX'
@project = Lighthouse::Project.find(:first)
end

like I said before, somehow the @project.milestones method won't take a :q argument, so you're stuck with just a simple 'select *' query for your @milestones recordset. Maybe they will change this soon.

Ruby export to excel walkthrough

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:42:59 +0000

Just write the headers, pull up the xml by report_id, and slurp it out. Piece of cake.

def export
headers['Content-Type'] = "application/vnd.ms-excel"
headers['Content-Disposition'] = "attachment; filename='report.xls'"
headers['Cache-Control'] = ''
s = UserReport.find(params[:report_id])
col2 = s.col2
@records = XmlSimple.xml_in(s.xml_val)
movedir = "public/delivery/"
x_axis = "Timeline"
y_axis = @records["yAxisName"] ? @records["yAxisName"] : "$$$"
f_name = s.file_name
File.open(f_name, 'w') do |f|
if current_user.is_test?
f.puts "Test Data"
else
f.puts "#{s.caption}"
end
f.puts "#{s.date_range}"
if s.sub_caption then f.puts "#{s.sub_caption}" end
f.puts "#{s.col1}#{s.col2}"
@records["set"].each do |x|
f.puts "#{clean_col(x["label"])}#{parse_report_value(x["value"], col2)}"
end
f.puts "#{s.filter_info}"
f.puts ""
f.puts ""
end
small_export ="delivery/#{f_name}"
export_link = "#{movedir}/#{f_name}"
FileUtils.mkpath(movedir)
FileUtils.mv f_name, export_link
small_export
end

Rails Playground a short review

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:06:10 +0000

This will be quick. I just had to put in a few words about Rails Playground.

A little background: I have been hosting my sites with Joyent up until now, and this last week I was just having some serious mongrel problems, and it started not being fun. I started looking for alternatives, and I found Rails Playground (RP) and it has a pretty cool angle.

Joyent is ok, but their whole thing is that they are empowering you to do everything yourself. They are just giving you a sandbox, basically, which is great unless you start having problems that you don't know how to fix yourself. Then you have to wait for their relatively slow customer service.

RP, on the other hand, will give you unlimited, much faster service for comparable rates and they will set a lot of it up for you. I gave them my svn info, paid the bill, and they set me up with capistrano, added the capistano files to my svn account, set up the proxy, and configured mod_rails to run with passenger.
Done!

I have never had a deployment go so easily.

Anyway that's my 2 cents.

link to their site

Disclosure: I am not benefiting from this review at all. I asked them for a deal and they turned me down!

MySQL 5.0 Table Record Count By Month Pivot Query

Thu, 15 May 2008 07:44:59 +0000

So there I was, hanging out at work on my birthday. I had a little time, so I decided to answer some Ruby forum questions (http://railsforum.com/). I went through a few on them, and ended up writing a pivot query for someone, out of nostalgia for my last job where I did a lot more straight SQL programming - not like I miss it too much, but it felt good. Anyway, only once I was done did it occur to me that I could use this same query for a lot of things. It's a very multi-purpose pivot query - it pivots record counts on a single table by month, so one really fast query returns all of the record counts by month of whatever table you are curious about. The original guy on the forum needed it to turn menu buttons on and off according to whether there were records in the table for a given month (as in blog records).
I recommend setting it up as a parameterized view with a single year parameter, because it won't distinguish by year otherwise. Map your parameter to where it says '2008' and you will be home free.

Instructions:
1 - replace YOURTABLE with your table name.
2 - replace all instances of 'created_at' with a different (date) field name only if you want to use a different field to aggregate by. It will work fine as is with 'created_at' because most Ruby tables have this field by default.

a little periodic love

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:18:32 +0000

Although I didn't actually end up using it, this little snippet did work like a charm.

<%= periodically_call_remote(:update => "preview",:frequency => 3, :url => {:controller => 'resource', :action => 'highlights', :id => @facebook_id }) %>

Just put it in a view somewhere, and it will call your remote function and update whatever you want at a given interval.

Sweet.Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

Ruby snippet for a .collect call instead of .each

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:14:09 +0000

This works great. This is the best replacement for a 'For' loop or one of those .each calls. This dumps out a 'br' separated list of links for all the sub-industries in each category. I set up the model call to return a recordset, tie it to @tv_sub in the controller, and this is all it takes to get those links set up in the view:

<% if @tv_sub -%>
<%= @tv_sub.collect{|si|
link_to (si.name, url_for(:action => 'browse', :category => 'tv', :sub_industry=>si.name))
}.join('')
-%>
<% end -%>

And this is the model call:

def self.find_sub_tv
SubIndustry.find(:all, :order=>'name', :conditions => ["industry_id = ?", TV_ID])
end
Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

A Ruby Rake Task

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:00:37 +0000

namespace :db do
desc "Loads a schema.rb file into the database and then loads the initial database fixtures."
task :bootstrap => ['db:schema:load', 'db:bootstrap:import']

# bootstrap namespace based on Rick Olson's bootstrap rake task.
namespace :bootstrap do
desc "Load database fixtures (in db/fixtures//*.{yml,csv}) into the current environment's database. Load specific folder using FOLDER=db/foo. Load specific fixtures using FIXTURES=x,y"
task :import => :environment do
require 'active_record/fixtures'
#require 'fastercsv'

import_folder = ENV['FOLDER'] || "db/fixtures/#{RAILS_ENV}/"
import_folder += '/' unless import_folder.slice(-1..-1).eql?('/')

rake_start_time = Time.now
file_count = 0
ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(RAILS_ENV.to_sym)
(ENV['FIXTURES'] ? ENV['FIXTURES'].split(/,/) : Dir.glob(File.join(RAILS_ROOT,import_folder, '*.{yml,csv}'))).each do |fixture_file|
table_start_time = Time.now
puts "Loading #{fixture_file}"
Fixtures.create_fixtures(import_folder, File.basename(fixture_file, '.*'))
table_end_time = Time.now
puts " -> #{(table_end_time - table_start_time).to_s}s"
file_count += 1
end

rake_end_time = Time.now
puts "-- total files: #{file_count}"
puts " -> #{(rake_end_time - rake_start_time).to_s}s"
end
end

desc "Run cron tasks."
task :scheduling => ['db:scheduling:daily', 'db:scheduling:hourly' ]

namespace :scheduling do
desc "Daily cron run."
task :daily => :environment do
for a in Actor.find(:all)
#calc savings - if logged in over last 3 weeks
puts a.name
expires_on = (a.updated_at + 21)
if expires_on >= Time.now.to_date
message1 = a.calc_savings!
if message1 == ""
puts "No savings."
else
puts message1
a.log << message1
a.save
end
u = User.find_by_id(a.user_id)
s = State.find_by_user_id(u.id)
s.reset_enthuse!
s.save
else
puts "hasn't been around."
end
end
end
desc "Hourly cron run."
task :hourly => :environment do
#increment enthusiasm
#pay wages if recently logged in - within last 1 hour
for a in Actor.find(:all)
puts a.name
expires_on = (a.updated_at + 1.day)
if DateTime.now <= expires_on
#other logic - last_pay_date + consecutive_work_hours
if a.consecutive_work_hours < 8
#calc wages
message2 = a.calc_wages!
if message2 == ""
puts "No wages."
else
puts message2
a.log << message2
a.save
end
end
else
#look for shelter
if a.has_box > 0
s = State.find_by_user_id(u.id)
s.take_shelter!
a.log << "#{a.name} takes refuge in a shantie. "
else
puts "No shantie."
end
a.consecutive_work_hours = 0
a.save
puts "hasn't been around."
end
end
end
end
end

Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

A Ruby controller

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:49:19 +0000

class GameController < ApplicationController
scaffold :state
before_filter :validate, :except => :create

def validate
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
if @state == nil
if logged_in?
flash[:notice] = "Please set up your Rockstar."
redirect_to(:controller => '/actor', :action => 'create')
else
flash[:notice] = "Please Log In."
redirect_to(:controller => 'home')
end
end
end

def create
#find previous game
@state = State.new
@state.user_id = current_user.id
@state.save
redirect_to(:action => 'play')
end

def return
session[:override] = "Welcome back."
redirect_to(:action => 'play')
end

def list
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
if @state == nil
redirect_to(:controller => '/account', :action => 'index')
end
@state_pages, @states = paginate :states, :per_page => 10
@thisguy=Actor.find_by_user_id(current_user)
@location = Location.find(@state.location_id)
end

def move
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
@thisguy=Actor.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
if params[:id] then
@state.change_location!(params[:id])
end
@state.save
session[:option_name] = ""
redirect_back_or_default(:action => 'play')
end
def jog
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
@thisguy=Actor.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
if @state.current_enthusiasm >= 3 then
@state.lose_enthuse!(3)
@thisguy.exercise!
@state.save
@thisguy.save
else
flash[:notice] = "You are too tired to jog."
end
#round it by hand
myfloat = (((@thisguy.looks * 1000).to_i).to_f)/1000
render_text myfloat.to_s
end
def reset_enthusiasm
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
@thisguy=Actor.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
if @state.current_enthusiasm < 100 then
@state.reset_enthuse!
@state.save
@thisguy.lose_burger!
@thisguy.save
render_text @state.current_enthusiasm.to_s
else
render_text nil
end
end

def refresh_enthuse
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
render_text @state.current_enthusiasm.to_s
end

def move_hood
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
@thisguy=Actor.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
if @state.current_enthusiasm >= 10 then
@state.lose_enthuse!(10)
if params[:id] then
@state.change_hood!(params[:id])
flash[:notice]="You are tired from the journey."
end
session[:option_name] = ""
@state.save
@thisguy.save
else
flash[:notice]="You are too tired to make it to #{Hood.find(params[:id]).name}. Maybe you should eat a burger."
end

redirect_back_or_default(:controller => '/game', :action => 'play')
end

def set_option
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
@state.set_option!(params[:id])
@state.save
session[:option_name] = Option.find(params[:id]).name
#render_text Option.find(params[:id]).name
render_text ""
end

def busk
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
@thisguy=Actor.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
if @state.current_enthusiasm >= 3 then
@state.lose_enthuse!(3)
@thisguy.learn!
@state.save
@thisguy.save
end
#round it by hand
myfloat = (((@thisguy.skill * 1000).to_i).to_f)/1000
render_text myfloat.to_s
end

def flirt
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
@thisguy=Actor.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
if @state.current_enthusiasm >= 3 then
@state.lose_enthuse!(3)
@thisguy.flirt!
@state.save
@thisguy.save
end
#round it by hand
myfloat = (((@thisguy.charisma * 1000).to_i).to_f)/1000
render_text myfloat.to_s
end

def pavement
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
@thisguy=Actor.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
if @state.current_enthusiasm >= 5 then
@state.lose_enthuse!(5)
@thisguy.pavement!
@state.save
@thisguy.save
end
#round it by hand
myfloat = (((@thisguy.savvy * 1000).to_i).to_f)/1000
render_text myfloat.to_s
end

def play
if not logged_in? then
redirect_to(:controller => '/session')
end
@thisguy=Actor.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
if not defined? @thisguy
redirect_to(:controller => '/actor', :action => 'create')
end
session[:option_name] = nil
@state_pages, @states = paginate :states, :per_page => 10
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
@state.option_id = 999
@location = Location.find(@state.location_id)
@hood = Hood.find(@state.hood_id)
@options = @location.options

end

def get_saved_name
if session[:option_name] == nil then
render_text ""
else
render_text session[:option_name]
end
end

def get_nothing
render_text " "
end

def optin
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
if @state.choose_option? then
@state.process_option!
flash[:notice] = @state.return_message
redirect_back_or_default(:controller => '/game', :action => 'play')
else
flash[:notice] = @state.return_message
redirect_back_or_default(:controller => '/game', :action => 'play')
end
end

def option_name
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
@option = Option.find_by_id(params[:id])
render_text @option.name
end

end

Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

solr shell scripting for fun and profit

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:02:34 +0000

We love Solr. Yes we do.

#!/bin/bash
#
# Shell script to clean up backups of a Solr Lucene collection.

orig_dir=$(pwd)
cd ${0%/*}/..
solr_root=$(pwd)
cd ${orig_dir}

unset days num data_dir user verbose debug
. ${solr_root}/bin/scripts-util

# set up variables
prog=${0##*/}
log=${solr_root}/logs/${prog}.log

# define usage string
USAGE="\
usage: $prog -D | -N [-d dir] [-u username] [-v]
-D cleanup backups more than days old
-N keep the most recent number of backups and
cleanup up the remaining ones that are not being pulled
-d specify directory holding index data
-u specify user to sudo to before running script
-v increase verbosity
-V output debugging info
"

# parse args
while getopts D:N:d:u:vV OPTION
do
case $OPTION in
D)
days="$OPTARG"
;;
N)
num="$OPTARG"
;;
d)
data_dir="$OPTARG"
;;
u)
user="$OPTARG"
;;
v)
verbose="v"
;;
V)
debug="V"
;;
*)
echo "$USAGE"
exit 1
esac
done

[[ -n $debug ]] && set -x

if [[ -z ${days} && -z ${num} ]]
then
echo "$USAGE"
exit 1
fi

fixUser "$@"

# use default value for data_dir if not specified
# relative path starts at ${solr_root}
if [[ -z ${data_dir} ]]
then
data_dir=${solr_root}/data
elif [[ "`echo ${data_dir}|cut -c1`" != "/" ]]
then
data_dir=${solr_root}/${data_dir}
fi

function remove
{
logMessage removing backup $1
/bin/rm -rf $1
}

start=`date +"%s"`

logMessage started by $oldwhoami
logMessage command: $0 $@

# trap control-c
trap 'echo "caught INT/TERM, exiting now but partial cleanup may have already occured";logExit aborted 13' INT TERM

if [[ -n ${days} ]]
then
#is maxdepth supported?
find ${data_dir} -maxdepth 0 -name foobar >/dev/null 2>&1
if [ $? = 0 ]; then
maxdepth="-maxdepth 1"
else
unset maxdepth
fi

logMessage cleaning up backups more than ${days} days old
for i in `find ${data_dir} ${maxdepth} -name 'backup.*' -mtime +${days} -print`
do
remove $i
done
elif [[ -n ${num} ]]
then
logMessage cleaning up all backups except for the most recent ${num} ones
unset backups count
backups=`ls -cd ${data_dir}/backup.* 2>/dev/null`
if [[ $? == 0 ]]
then
count=`echo $backups|wc -w`
startpos=`expr $num + 1`
if [[ $count -gt $num ]]
then
for i in `echo $backups|cut -f${startpos}- -d" "`
do
remove $i
done
fi
fi
fi

logExit ended 0

Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

A Ruby View using AJAX

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 07:52:19 +0000

There is a lot going on here, perhaps too much, but this serves as a nice example.

<% i=0 %>

<% for l in @hood.locations %>

<% i=i+1 %>
<% if l == @location then %>
<% lmain = l.name %>
<%= image_tag("http://www.noonchild.com/art/rockstaralley2_41.png") %>
<% else %>
<%= link_to image_tag("#{l.graflink}", :border=>0, :title => l.name), :action => 'move', :id => l %>
<% end %>
<% end %><%= lmain %>

<% for o in @options -%>
<%= link_to_remote( image_tag("#{o.graflink}", :border => 0, :title => o.description), {
:update => "current_message",
:url =>{ :action => o.link, :controller => o.controller },
:complete => {"document.getElementById('message_answer').style.display = 'block'; document.getElementById('current_message').style.display = 'block';Element.update('option_message','#{o.name}');",
remote_function(:update => 'x',
:url => { :action => :set_option, :id => o })}
},{
:onmouseover => {"Element.update('option_preview','#{o.name}');
document.getElementById('option_message').style.display = 'none'; ",
visual_effect(:fade,"flashmessage", :duration => 2.5 )},
:onmouseout => "Element.update('option_preview','');document.getElementById('option_message').style.display = 'block';" }
) -%>
<% end -%>

<% start_form_tag :action => 'optin' do |f| -%>
<%= submit_tag 'Say yes.', :onclick => "document.getElementById('ajaxsubmit').style.display = 'inline';" %>
<% end_form_tag %><%= image_tag("http://digbox.net/art/ajax-loader.gif", :border=>0) %>
<% end -%>
<%= image_tag("http://digbox.net/art/ajax-loader.gif", :border=>0) %>

Places to go, things to do

<% for h in Hood.find(:all) %>
<% if h != @hood then %>
<%= link_to image_tag("#{h.graflink}", :border=>0), {:action => 'move_hood', :id => h}, :onclick => visual_effect(:Fade,"enthusiasm") %>

<%= h.name %>
<% end %>
<% end %>

<%= render :partial => 'form' %>

Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

Another Ruby model

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 07:47:03 +0000

class State < ActiveRecord::Base
has_one :location
has_one :user
has_one :hood
has_one :option

attr_reader :return_message
PRICE_OF_UNIFORM = 22
BURGER_LIMIT = 5

def isactive?
(self.current_enthusiasm > 0)
end

def lose_enthuse!(factor = 1)
self.current_enthusiasm -= (1 * factor)
self.name = "You are visiting"
end

def change_location!(location)
self.location_id = location
end

def reset_enthuse!
self.current_enthusiasm = 100
end

def change_hood!(hood)
self.hood_id = hood
self.location_id = 1
self.name = "Please choose somewhere to visit:"
end

def set_option!(id)
self.option_id = id
end

def choose_option?
s=""
@option = Option.find_by_id(self.option_id)
@thisguy=Actor.find_by_user_id(self.user_id)
if @thisguy.cash < @option.cash_price then
s= s << "You need at least $#{@option.cash_price}. "
end
if self.current_enthusiasm < @option.enthuse_price then
s= s << "You need at least #{@option.enthuse_price} enthusiasm points. "
end
if (@thisguy.has_uniform < @option.uniform_needed) and (@option.give_uniform < 1) then
s= s << "You need a uniform for this and you can't get one here. "
end
if (@thisguy.has_uniform < @option.uniform_needed) and (@option.give_uniform == 1) and (@thisguy.cash < PRICE_OF_UNIFORM) then
s= s << "You need a uniform for this and you can't afford one - you are short $#{PRICE_OF_UNIFORM - @thisguy.cash}. "
end
if (@thisguy.has_job >= @option.give_job) and (@option.give_job > 0) then
s= s << "You already have a job. "
end
if @thisguy.charisma < @option.charisma_needed then
s= s << "You need at least #{@option.charisma_needed} charisma points. "
end
if @thisguy.skill < @option.skill_needed then
s= s << "You need at least #{@option.skill_needed} skill points. "
end
if @thisguy.savvy < @option.savvy_needed then
s= s << "You need at least #{@option.savvy_needed} savvy points. "
end
if @thisguy.looks < @option.looks_needed then
s= s << "You need at least #{@option.looks_needed} looks points. "
end
if @option.take_point > 0 and ( @thisguy.savvy < 1 and @thisguy.charisma < 1 and @thisguy.skill < 1 and @thisguy.looks < 1 )
s= s << "You have no points left to sell, you masochist. "
end
if @thisguy.fans < @option.fans_needed then
s= s << "You need at least #{@option.fans_needed} fans. "
end
if @option.give_charity_bar > 0 and @thisguy.charity_bar > 1
s= s << "You already have #{@thisguy.charity_bar==1 ? "1 box" : "2 boxes"} of candy bars. "
end
if @option.charity_bar_price > 0 and @thisguy.charity_bar < 1
s= s << "You can't sell candy bars that you don't have. "
end
#BURGER CHECK
if @option.give_burger == 2
if (@thisguy.burgers + 2) > BURGER_LIMIT
s= s << "You can't carry any more burgers. "
end
end

if @thisguy.has_car < @option.car_needed then
if @thisguy.has_car > 0 then
nicer = " nicer"
end
s= s << "You need a #{nicer} car. "
end
if (s.strip) == "" then
true
else
r = rand(5)
if r==1 then
@return_message="Sorry #{@thisguy.name}, you can't #{@option.name.upcase} Apparently you are not good enough right now. #{s}"
elsif r==2
@return_message="Sorry #{@thisguy.name}, you can't #{@option.name.upcase} It's not working out for you. #{s}"
elsif r==3
@return_message="Sorry #{@thisguy.name}, you can't #{@option.name.upcase} Maybe next time. #{s}"
elsif r==4
@return_message="Sorry #{@thisguy.name}, you can't #{@option.name.upcase} What a shame. #{s}"
else
@return_message="Sorry #{@thisguy.name}, you can't #{@option.name.upcase} You are coming up a little short. #{s}"
end
false
end
end

def process_option!
@option = Option.find_by_id(self.option_id)
@thisguy=Actor.find_by_user_id(self.user_id)
@thisguy.cash -= @option.cash_price.to_i
self.current_enthusiasm -= @option.enthuse_price.to_i
@thisguy.cash+=@option.cash_payout
self.current_enthusiasm = (self.current_enthusiasm + @option.enthuse_payout)>100 ? 100 : self.current_enthusiasm + @option.enthuse_payout
@thisguy.charisma = @thisguy.charisma + (@thisguy.charisma*(@option.charisma_quotient*0.001))
@thisguy.skill = @thisguy.skill + (@thisguy.skill*(@option.skill_quotient*0.001))
@thisguy.savvy = @thisguy.savvy + (@thisguy.savvy*(@option.savvy_quotient*0.001))
@thisguy.looks = @thisguy.looks + (@thisguy.looks*(@option.looks_quotient*0.001))
if @option.cash_price > 0 then
s="You spent $#{@option.cash_price}. "
else
s=""
end
if @option.cash_payout > 0 then
s= s << "You made $#{@option.cash_payout}. "
end
if @option.enthuse_payout > 0 then
s= s << "You feel better. "
end
if @option.charisma_quotient > 0 then
s= s << "Your mojo is off the hook. "
end
if @option.skill_quotient > 0 then
s= s << "Your skill went up a bit. "
end
if @option.savvy_quotient > 0 then
s= s << "Your savvy has improved. "
end
if @option.looks_quotient > 0 then
s= s << "You just got prettier. "
end
if @option.give_car > 0 then
@thisguy.has_car = @option.give_car
s= s << "You got wheels. "
end
if @option.give_pet > 0 then
@thisguy.has_pet = @option.give_pet
s= s << "Your new pet loves you. "
end
if (@option.give_uniform == 1) and (@thisguy.has_uniform < 1) then
@thisguy.cash -= PRICE_OF_UNIFORM
@thisguy.has_uniform = 1
s= s << "You paid $#{PRICE_OF_UNIFORM} for your uniform. "
end
if @option.give_box > 0 then
@thisguy.has_box = @option.give_box
s= s << "You now have somewhere to live. "
end
if @option.give_job > 0 then
@thisguy.has_job = @option.give_job
@thisguy.works_at = @option.location_id
@thisguy.last_pay_date = Time.now
s= s << "You just got hired. "
end
if @option.take_point > 0
whichever = rand(4)
if whichever == 1
@thisguy.skill -= 1
name = "skill"
elsif whichever == 2
@thisguy.charisma -= 1
name = "charisma"
elsif whichever == 3
@thisguy.savvy -= 1
name = "savvy"
else
@thisguy.looks -= 1
name = "looks"
end
s= s << "You lost a point of #{name}. "
end
if @option.give_point > 0
if @option.give_point == 1
quant = "1 point"
else
quant = "#{@option.give_point} points"
end
@thisguy.points_to_give += @option.give_point
s= s << "You gained #{quant} to use however you wish. Just click on the the PDA icon by your burgers."
end
if @option.take_job > 0
s= s << ((@thisguy.has_job>0) ? "You lost your job. " : "You got arrested for no reason. ")
@thisguy.has_job = 0
end
if @option.give_guitar > 0 then
@thisguy.has_guitar = @option.give_guitar
s= s << "You bought the guitar. "
end
if @option.charity_bar_price > 0
@thisguy.charity_bar -= 1
s= s << "You sold a box of candy bars. "
end
if @option.give_acct > 0 then
@thisguy.has_acct = @option.give_acct
s= s << "You will be earning #{@option.give_acct * $SAVINGS_QUOTIENT}% interest. "
end
if @option.give_burger > 0 then
if @option.give_burger == 1 then
burger_count = " 1 burger "
else
burger_count = " #{@option.give_burger} burgers "
end
if (@option.give_burger == 1) and (@thisguy.burgers == BURGER_LIMIT)
s= s << "You took a burger with you but it fell out of your pocket. "
else

@thisguy.burgers += @option.give_burger
s= s << "You wrapped up#{burger_count} to put in your pocket. "
end
end
if @option.random_money > 0 then
r = rand(100)
if @option.random_money > (r - (@option.random_money/2)) then
x = (@option.random_money * (r/1.6) + @option.random_money + (r * @option.random_money))
@thisguy.cash += x
s= s << "You got lucky for an extra $#{(x).to_i}. "
end
end
if @option.random_pet > 0 then
r = rand(100)
if (@option.random_pet >= r) then
@thisguy.has_pet += 1
s= s << "You seduced a stray puppie with your charm. "
end
end
#straight given fan
if @option.give_fan > 0
netgain = @option.give_fan
if netgain > 1 then
s_suffix = "s"
else
s_suffix = ""
end
@thisguy.fans += netgain
s= s << "#{netgain} new fan#{s_suffix} came up to you after the show. "
end
#random fan
if @option.random_fan > 0
netgain = 0
r = rand(90)
if @option.random_fan >= r then
random_factor = 0
for i in r..@option.random_fan
random_factor = (random_factor + i)
end
netgain = random_factor
end
if netgain > 0 then
if netgain > 1 then
s_suffix = "s"
else
s_suffix = ""
end
@thisguy.fans += netgain
s= s << "#{netgain} new fan#{s_suffix} came to your website. "
end
end if
if @option.give_charity_bar > 0
@thisguy.charity_bar += 1
end
@return_message = s
@thisguy.save
self.save
end

def return_message
@return_message
end

def return_message=(val)
@return_message = val
end
def take_shelter!
x = self.current_enthusiasm += 50
if x > 100
x = 100
end
self.current_enthusiasm = x
end

end

Original post blogged on codeboxer.com.

A simple Ruby model

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:44:23 +0000

class Actor < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_presence_of :name
validates_uniqueness_of :name
validates_length_of :name, :maximum => 26, :message => "The name you have chosen is too long. You are allowed up to 26 characters."

belongs_to :user
REGULAR_LEVEL = 1.004
RAISED_LEVEL1 = 1.014
$SAVINGS_QUOTIENT = 2
WAGES_QUOTIENT = 9

attr_reader :hasjob

def exercise!
self.looks *= REGULAR_LEVEL
end
def learn!
self.skill *= REGULAR_LEVEL
end
def lose_burger!
self.burgers -= 1
end
def flirt!
self.charisma *= REGULAR_LEVEL
end
def pavement!
self.savvy *= RAISED_LEVEL1
end
def add_looks!
self.looks += 1
lose_point
end
def add_charisma!
self.charisma += 1
lose_point
end
def add_skill!
self.skill += 1
lose_point
end
def add_savvy!
self.savvy += 1
lose_point
end

def lose_point
self.points_to_give -= 1
end

def haspoints?
(self.points_to_give > 0)
end

def hasjob?
(self.works_at>0)
end

def has_state?
@state = State.find_by_user_id(current_user.id)
defined? @state
end

def name_of_job
Location.find(self.works_at).name
end

def gorandom!
while self.points_to_give > 5
i = rand(90)
i %= 5
if i == 1 then
self.add_skill!
end
if i == 2 then
self.add_charisma!
end
if i == 3 then
self.add_looks!
end
if i == 4 then
self.add_savvy!
end
end
#self.save
end
def calc_savings!
#call this first
if self.has_acct > 0 and self.cash > 0
cash_on_hand = self.cash
percentage = ($SAVINGS_QUOTIENT*self.has_acct)
added_cash = ((cash_on_hand*percentage).to_i)/100
self.cash += added_cash
"You made $#{added_cash} in interest on your account. "
else
""
end
end
def clear_log!
self.log = "Ok. "
end
def calc_wages!
if self.has_job > 0
cash_wages = self.has_job * WAGES_QUOTIENT
self.cash += cash_wages
self.consecutive_work_hours += 1
self.last_pay_date = Time.now
"You made $#{cash_wages} working at #{Location.find(self.works_at).name}, hour ##{self.consecutive_work_hours}. "
else
""
end
end
end
#end classOriginal post blogged on codeboxer.com.

the Monstertrak migration

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 07:37:37 +0000

After over 9 months, literally the last 4 weeks non-stop, every day, I bring you - the migration. In effect. 5000 + lines of PL/SQL sexiness. This little puppy brought about a million company records and 300,000 student records over into the new Ruby on Rails schema which were then written into over 8 million contact, user, address, and account records.

migration189

PL SQL split function

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 07:29:26 +0000

--this is how you would use it in a cursor statement:

--copied from http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-9592-5259821.html

Inexpensive MAX queries in PL SQL

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:24:28 +0000

This was a trick that one of our contractors showed me here at Monstertrak today. Basically, here's the gist. you've got a join that you need to make, but you only ever want one record to return - you need to restrict the join to return one - and only one - sister record.
Common logic would have you doing a group by query against said table as a derived table, on the primary key and whatever other field encompasses the info you need to enforce your logic, and doing a self-join against that same table to pull in the rest of the fields you need, and then joining that back against the table you needed to join to in the first place.

Here's what that looks like -

SELECT MAIN_TABLE.*, JOIN_TABLE.*
FROM MAIN_TABLE
,JOIN_TABLE
,(SELECT MAX(ID) ID, USERNAME FROM JOIN_TABLE GROUP BY ID, USERNAME) JOIN_TABLE_GROUP_BY
WHERE MAIN_TABLE.ID = JOIN_TABLE.FOREIGN_KEY
AND JOIN_TABLE.ID = JOIN_TABLE_GROUP_BY.ID

There is a better way. You can save yourself the self-join by concatenating all of your needed fields into one calculated field, and doing the MAX() calculation with only ONE field in the GROUP BY. You put your criteria field far left, pad it enough to not chop any digits, concatenate in the rest of what you want, and then SUBSTR it back out in the end. Genius.

select c.id,
c.email,
trim(substr(v.val,13,10)) eaid,
trim(substr(v.val,23)) username
from MAIN_TABLE c,
(select max(rpad(company_id,12)||rpad(id,10)||username) val from JOIN_TABLE ea
where ea.LAST_LOGIN > '1-JAN-2006'
group by ea.company_id) v
where c.id = trim(substr(v.val,1,12))
and length(c.email) > 3
order by c.email asc, c.id desc;

A really clean dynamic insert proc for PL SQL ETL packages

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:01:59 +0000

A really clean dynamic insert proc for PL/SQL ETL packages. Pass in the table name, an array of field names and an array of values. Done.

PROCEDURE insert_row( p_tblname in varchar2, p_colname in v_array, p_value in v_array)
IS
--This procedure dynamically builds an insert string and executes.
v_stmt clob;
v_ret number;
v_cntflag number := 1; --default start counter
no_parse_error exception;
pragma exception_init(no_parse_error,-1003); -- no parse error

BEGIN

-- VALIDATION CHECK
IF p_tblname IS NULL THEN RETURN;
ELSIF p_colname IS NULL OR p_colname.COUNT = 0 THEN RETURN;
END IF;

--Build SQL statement for insert
v_stmt := 'insert into ' || p_tblname ||'@optional_dblink.server.xxx'|| ' ( ' || p_colname(1);

for i in 2 .. p_colname.count
loop
v_stmt := v_stmt || ', ' || p_colname(i);
end loop;

if upper(p_colname(1)) = 'ID' and p_value(1) = '-999' then
v_cntflag := 2;
v_stmt := v_stmt || ') values ('||p_tblname||'_SEQ.NEXTVAL@optional_dblink.server.xxx';
else
v_cntflag := 1;
v_stmt := v_stmt || ') values ( :bv1';
end if;

for i in 2 .. p_colname.count
loop
v_stmt := v_stmt || ', :bv' || i;
end loop;

v_stmt := v_stmt || ')';
--dbms_output.put_line(v_stmt);

-- this check is done to ensure that there is no hard parse by storing previously
-- parsed queries into a global array variable within this session
-- Using dbms_sql instead of execute immediate because the number of bind variables is unknown.
p_cursor := parse_tbl.first;
while ( p_cursor IS NOT NULL and (parse_tbl(p_cursor) != v_stmt) )
loop
p_cursor := parse_tbl.next(p_cursor);
end loop;

if ( p_cursor IS NULL or (parse_tbl(p_cursor) != v_stmt) )
then
p_cursor := dbms_sql.open_cursor;
dbms_sql.parse( p_cursor, v_stmt, dbms_sql.native );
parse_tbl(p_cursor) := v_stmt;
end if;

for i in v_cntflag .. p_value.count
loop
--dbms_output.put_line('val'||i||'-'||p_value(i));
dbms_sql.bind_variable( p_cursor, ':bv' || i, p_value(i) );
end loop;

v_ret := dbms_sql.execute( p_cursor );

EXCEPTION
WHEN no_parse_error then
p_cursor := dbms_sql.open_cursor;
dbms_sql.parse(p_cursor, v_stmt, dbms_sql.native );
parse_tbl(p_cursor) := v_stmt;
for i in v_cntflag .. p_value.count
loop
dbms_sql.bind_variable( p_cursor, ':bv' || i, p_value(i) );
end loop;
v_ret := dbms_sql.execute( p_cursor );

WHEN OTHERS THEN
log_exception('insert_row:' || p_tblname, p_tblname, SQLCODE || sqlerrm, SUBSTR(query_text, 1, 400));
END insert_row;