Giant Japanese Robot

They Might Be Giants - Put It to the Test (via ParticleMen)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:33:58 -0500

They Might Be Giants - Put It to the Test (via ParticleMen)

The Blob 1958 opening tune (via bubbazametti)

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:00:38 -0400

The Blob 1958 opening tune (via bubbazametti)

Ruby on Rails: String to Object

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:20:41 -0400

In my new app I have a whole bunch of nested models. For the most part they all have the same database structure and can use very similar partials. I hate to repeat code because it usually makes my life more difficult when I need to go back and change something or do maintenance. I am now placing these partials in a single location that all of these models have access to.

Problem is I had a very difficult time telling the partials what object it needed to represent without adding a parameter. (I am making a lot of AJAX calls) I solved it by using the controller that was passed along with the request. After that I needed to take that string that was passed and transform it so ruby recognized it as an object. This was my final solution:

object = params[:controller].classify.constantize.find(params[:id])

Classify takes the string and gives it the proper camelcase format so that it conforms to the model naming convention. Constantize then takes that string and converts it into an actual object.

RIP Captain Lou. You will be missed.

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:18:34 -0400

RIP Captain Lou. You will be missed.

agentmlovestacos: Man, 2012’s gonna be IIiiiiiiintense! (via...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:40:39 -0400

agentmlovestacos:

Man, 2012’s gonna be IIiiiiiiintense!

(via 20twelve)

Lenny Kravitz Let Love Rule (Justice Remix) (via lennykravitz)

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:24:04 -0400

Lenny Kravitz Let Love Rule (Justice Remix) (via lennykravitz)

Carl Sagan - ‘A Glorious Dawn’ ft Stephen Hawking...

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:43:30 -0400

Carl Sagan - ‘A Glorious Dawn’ ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed) (via melodysheep)

Ruby on Rails: String to Boolean

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:36:00 -0400

Really, this should be simpler. Knowing Rails folks there is probably some deep philosophical reason this isn’t included, but I hold no grudge.

So….I’m converting objects back and forth to JSON and when they return all my pretty Booleans are converted into strings. My assumption was that there was a handy little .to_b(ool) method for String, but alas there does not appear to be. This is the method I ended up writing.

     def object_to_boolean(value)
        return [true, “true”, 1, “1”, “T”, “t”].include?(value.class == String ? value.downcase : value)
     end

As always I am open to suggestions and improvements.

Ruby on Rails: Single Table Inheritance and Restful Routes

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:36:36 -0400

I am writing this out of a bit of frustration. I have a solution here, but it took too long and it can not be correct. I am hoping some smarter folks will chime in with some thoughts.

I have a model called Questions which has many subtypes using single table inheritance. Basically types of questions dropdown, checkbox, radio, etc etc.

These are set up as resources so I can use restful routing. I also want to use all of the rails form magic so I set up resources like this…

 map.resources :question_checkboxes, :as => :questions, :controller => :questions

This allowed the form_for method to render the form correctly and point to the “question” url instead of the url of one of the subtypes.

The next problem was that the “update” controller method was looking for very specific params “params[:question]”, but the rendered form was passing params like “params[:question_checkbox]”. The way I eventually solved this was set up a before filter and method in the controller like this…

 before_filter :form_symbol

   def form_symbol
      if params[:question] then @form_symbol = :question end
      if params[:question_checkbox] then @form_symbol = :question_checkbox end
   end

and then in the update method of the questions_controller…

 @question.update_attributes(params[@form_symbol])

It does the trick, but feels very uncomfortable. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

The other day I mentioned sketching a Zombie Totoro, looks like...

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:35:47 -0400

The other day I mentioned sketching a Zombie Totoro, looks like this person beat me to it.

has_many :through & Acts_As_List

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:50:39 -0400

Following post is for Ruby on Rails geeks.

I don’t normally post my programming adventures here, but maybe I should. This is a simple thing and should have been obvious right away to me, but it wasn’t so I am posting it here for future generations. Thanks to Geek Mama for shaming me into posting this.

I have a “has_many :choices, :through => :question_items” model set up for Questions and their Choices. The QuestionItems model also has a”position” column because it is an Acts_As_List model. All is fine and good until I try and get the choices to return in the correct order by calling @questions.choices in my controller.

The solution was pretty simple, adding an :order option to the has_many method solved it:

has_many :choices, :through => :question_items, :order => "question_items.position"

nouvelle vague “dance with me” from bande a part...

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:06:12 -0400

nouvelle vague “dance with me” from bande a part (via luakabopper)

Kurtroll’d

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:46:33 -0400

Kurtroll’d

Tricky Linguistics (via ayesham819)

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:06:25 -0400

Tricky Linguistics (via ayesham819)

(via reygunn)

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:21:25 -0400

(via reygunn)

Quirk Classics #2: Book Trailer (via irreference)

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:22:18 -0400

Quirk Classics #2: Book Trailer (via irreference)

Bionic Woman - Bigfoot (via LincolnAP) Checklist Afro...

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:56:03 -0400

Bionic Woman - Bigfoot (via LincolnAP)

Checklist

Afro Bigfoot
Best hair on television
Purple and yellow speedsuits
Anti-gravity rock throwing
Utility belts
Socially acceptable paunch

Interview with Danny from The Shining (via Spiralendrache)

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:28:28 -0400

Interview with Danny from The Shining (via Spiralendrache)

Bollywood He-Man Bonus dime store Orco. Chahiye He Man He Man...

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:57:35 -0400

Bollywood He-Man

Bonus dime store Orco.

Chahiye He Man He Man from Nafrat Ki Aandhi (1989) (via jatholb)

Earlier version of Dune that never was

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:01:54 -0400

From Wikipedia:

In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights from APJ. Alejandro Jodorowsky was set to direct. In 1975, Jodorowsky planned to film the story as a ten hour feature, in collaboration with Orson Welles, Dan O’Bannon, Salvador Dalí, Gloria Swanson, Hervé Villechaize and others (whom he nicknamed his “seven samurais”). The music would be composed by Pink Floyd. Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction periodicals, Jean Giraud (Moebius), a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Metal Hurlant magazine, and H. R. Giger. Moebius began designing creatures and characters for the film, while Foss was brought in to design the film’s space ships and hardware. Giger began designing the Harkonnen Castle based on Moebius’ storyboards, and Dali was cast as the Emperor with a reported salary of $100,000 an hour. Jodorowsky also hired Dan O’Bannon to head the special effects department.

I love the Lynch version but that would have been unicorn magic right there.