Archive for June, 2005
Ever wonder where my titles come from most of the time? Whatever song’s playing on my stereo/iTunes usually. You’re a smart bunch, though. I’m sure you had that figured out ages ago.
Not a lot of new news on the Ruby on Rails front for me. Not that I haven’t been playing with it, but I think I’ve taken my todo list application as far as I can take it at this point. I’ve made it so you can set due dates and stuff, and found out that AJAX isn’t going to really help me with anything on it. The changes need to be permanent, obviously, and AJAX doesn’t do permanent.
So I guess it’s time to find another project/tutorial and start working on it. A lot of people have suggested the Four Days on Rails tutorial but it’s about making another todo list and just how many of those can one man use? So I’m going to have to scour the ‘net some more and see what I can find. I don’t feel strong enough to start out on my own yet. Another few tutorials and a book and I’ll have enough under my belt to really start on my own.
That project I mentioned last time? The one that no one commented on or even mentioned. Yeah, I’m still thinking about it. My idea is that it’d be like a social networking site, but without all the “friends” and “match” crap. You’d come and fill out a questionnaire of (perhaps) ten random questions drawn from the database. Where do these ten questions come from? Whenever someone signs up, they suggest at least one new question for the set. Want to fill out more than ten questions? That’s cool, just go into your profile and answer more questions. More suggestions? That’s fine, too. You’d also be able to suggest the removal of questions. If a question had enough removal votes, it goes away, never to be seen again, until someone suggests it again. Eventually you’d have a list of questions that people really want answered about their fellow humans. Minus the few “how big’s your dick/boobs?” questions by the asshats of the web. Heaven help me on the Google results that’s going to get me.
Well, I guess that’s enough rambling right now. Oh, two last notes. One of my readers/commenters has finally gotten his site up and running, so go to Brit’s site and check it out.
Also, Max has produced two of his best (in my humble opinion) pieces this week. Check out his page #5 of Quick Step and the July pin-up. Keep up the awesome work, Max.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
June 28
There, Ray. Happy? Anyway, getting into the development of Ruby on Rails does kind of seem like a trip to see the Wizard. I didn’t pick up any scarecrows, tin men, lions, or wicked witches, but I did pick up a lot of other stuff.
To start with, I had to get my machines up and working well. My Linux machine was already running Apache, PHP and MySQL (Standard Query Language, but I needed to add Ruby, RubyGems and, last but not least Ruby on Rails to it. I downloaded and compiled all of them from source and eventually got everything up and running, except I couldn’t get the server to give me Ruby pages, so I used the Ruby on Rails-native server, WEBrick. That worked fine for a day or so.
Now I’ve decided I want faster access to my Ruby stuff, so I’ve set it up on my iBook. All of the software listed above, plus FastCGI to speed up delivery a bit. It seems to be streaming along nicely, with my 256mb of RAM only taking a bit of a hit from running both the Apache2 and MySQL servers.
So, now I have to start learning, right? Yeah, that was my thought, too. So I started on the tutorials. I worked through all of Rolling with Ruby on Rails tutorial and part of the second installment of it before that script went belly up. I think this isn’t a fluke as Manny had the same problem I did. That was Sunday on the Linux box.
Yesterday, Monday, I sat down on my Rails-serving iBook and worked through “How to Make a (small) Publication Management App (RoR Wiki)”http://manuals.rubyonrails.com/read/chapter/48#page132 and it worked for awhile. I noticed a lot of errors where the author seemed to be reading/referencing a different tutorial/script. Finally it stopped working near the end and I just gave up on it. Still, learned some more syntax and some gotchas.
Today was the next trial, I guess. I sat down this morning to work through a tutorial I had seen yesterday during my browsing. How to Make a Todo List Program with Rails and it worked perfectly. I know. I’m as amazed as you are! Heh, no, it’s a great tutorial and the author is really good at explaining what each line/command does.
After completing it (probably took about 2 hours total), I decided to try and expand upon it. I wanted to add a bit more information to each item by adding a due date to it. Obviously some elements wouldn’t have a due date, so I had to address that as well. So I added two new fields to my MySQL table for each of those and started working.
After a few hours and some head=>desk banging, I managed to get it working just like I want. Big thanks to the people in #rubyonrails on irc.freenode.net, too. They pointed me in the right direction a few times. I then started styling it with CSS and it looks good. It’s a blatant rip on 37Signals, but I don’t care.
So, maybe tomorrow’ll bring another app. I’m thinking of a social application, actually. Mad Libs + Introductory Questionnaire. Any name ideas?
I Think I Can
June 27
Wow, been awhile. Mostly just ’cause nothing has been happening.
John finally got his site up. Well, sort of. We’re still working through it, so give him some time before you start trash-talking. He’s doing a good job, though, and it’ll all be shipshape and wonderful soon. So drop by, check out his photos, and leave a note or two.
He and I had another Xbox LAN party this past weekend. Not that many people showed, but we got in a few good games of Halo 2 and Burnout 3. It’s funny, but the only time I play Halo anymore is at these LAN parties, and I do so much better at them than I ever did on Xbox Live!. Maybe it’s that I can actually see the other players, I’m not just slugging it out on my own.
Actually, in gaming news, I beat Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Jade Empire in the past couple of weeks. Both turned out to be great games and I’m thinking of going back and playing Jade Empire again, only Closed Fist this time instead of Open Palm. It’s a bit heavy on the dialog sometimes, but most of the time it fits in nicely and you can just run along beating stuff up. The map needs a bit of work, too. It’s really easy to get lost. Next up, though, will be finishing Burnout 3 and probably getting into Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow that Ray sent me for my birthday.
But, the big news, and the reason for the title…I’ve started teaching myself Ruby on Rails. Well, teaching myself as best I can. So far the few tutorials I’ve worked through are spotty in many areas. I think it’s just that most people are better at writing code than at explaining it. That’s fine. I just need to get a book, I guess.
So, if you have any good tips on Ruby resources, pass ‘em along. If they’re linked on any of the main sites I’ve probably already seen ‘em, but give ‘em to me again anyway. Or, better yet, if you have a spare $10, drop it into my PayPal account or buy a book off my Amazon wishlist. ;)
Well, it’s a bit late and I need to get to bed. Maybe I’ll start blogging my Ruby experiences for you all. Anyone interested in that?
I know I’ve posted The Weakerthans before but they’re just such a great band. Anyway, here’s two tracks from their album Reconstruction Site.
The Decemberists
June 20
I know I ran The Decemberists not terribly long ago, but I’ve been able to check out some more of their stuff and they’re really good, so you get another helping of ‘em this week.
Also, I know I’m a bit late this week. I just couldn’t figure out what I wanted to put up so…yeah. You get stuff I promised to Teresa. So, thank her if you like it. Blame her if you don’t.
From Autumn To Ashes
June 12
Yes, Tessie, this week’s band is just some more screamo crap. But I like ‘em and I think you will, too. Especially after the less-than-spectacular responses to last week’s MP3. Guess you people just don’t know great music and comedy when it stabs you in the ass.
Anyway, this week’s band is lovely From Autumn To Ashes with two tracks off of their The Fiction We Live album. So, enjoy! And leave some freakin’ feedback!
The second file download had to change due to a leech.