Archive for September, 2005
Side by Side
September 20
Last week I finally bought a longer ethernet cable so I could have both computers (the iBook and the Ubuntu machine) online at the same tme. Man, I should have done this when we first moved. It’s amazing how much easier it is to work on two computers than just this one iBook.
Yeah, that’s right. Two is easier than one. You just have to have them set up correctly and know how to use them. Since they’re both based on Unix, you get all the fun benefits that brings like being able to launch and control many programs from the commandline. Thanks to the wonders of a tabbed terminal and Irssi, I can monitor the log file for the Sproutit.com application while sitting in the Ruby on Rails IRC channel to get help on things that give me problems. I can run the Webrick server on my iBook to power the app, but view the site using Firefox on the Ubuntu machine, saving me the memory that Safari takes up (and it takes up a lot).
Probably the best thing, though, is the use of Synergy2. Synergy2 (S2 from now on) is a software-powered KVM which means I can use the Kensington mouse that’s hooked up to my iBook to transfer control of the keyboard and mouse from one computer to the next. So by sweeping my mouse to the right (since that’s where the Ubuntu monitor is), I can click on things on the Linux box and type into it using the iBook’s keyboard. You can start “ooh”-ing and “aah”-ing now.
This has helped me a lot today, I’ve been able to work at about twice the speed that I have been, once I got everything set up, of course. Some things are still a little iffy. I don’t quite have enough RAM on either machine to develop in Rails and still check my email with an email program. Since I relegated my RSS feeds to Bloglines I don’t have to deal with Safari checking them all the time (that really adds to Safari’s footprint). And turning off all but a couple of Dashboard widgets saves a ton of RAM, too.
I’m still figuring out just how to save the most space and memory, but it’s getting better and better. Any of you have any handy tricks for avoiding computer overloads?
A Cookie Console
September 16
You break my heart into a thousand pieces and you say it’s because I deserve better? Sorry, that’s playing on the stereo right now. Gotta love From Autumn to Ashes.
Anyway, I finally have something awesome to blog about. Many of you will already know this, but it’s so freakin’ handy-dandy if you have to deal with cookies in your development. If you’re not on a Mac, sorry, skip this post.
OK, first, you need to be using Safari. There’s no better browser out there for OS X 10.4 Tiger, anyway, so I know you’re using it already. No, keep reading, don’t run down to the comments to tell me how awesome Firefox/Opera/IE 5.2/Camino/Shiira/OmniWeb/iCab is. I know they’re useful and all, but they all run like cold molasses on my machine, so shush.
Now, you need to have PithHelmet installed. Load up your page that stores the cookie (or the page that’ll send the data into the cookie) and open up Console (it’s in your Utilities folder if you still use the Finder to launch things. By the way, if you do, check this out). Now, in Safari go into the Pithhelmet menu (either the pith helmet in your menubar or in Safari -> Pithhelmet) and go to the Advanced menu and choose “Log cookies to console”.
Go to your cookie-recorder and get your cookies recorded (you know what I mean), then jump over to the Console and filter the result by the domain name of the site (localhost or www.eyeheartzombies.com for example). Hey! Lookie there! You can see your cookies, their names, what they hold, when they expire. All that good stuff you hate to debug!
I’m sure I’ll start using this more and more when I’m dealing with cookies and sessions (you can see session data, too, but that’s usually easier to check). What do you think? Anyone have any similar methods for checking cookies and other state data?
Stealing Buddha
September 12
This weekend saw John and I getting all crazy excited wanting to smash people in the head with our elbows and slide, split-legged, under trucks. Oh, yeah, it was after watching the amazing Thai movie Ong Bak. If you haven’t seen it, go rent it now.
What makes the movie so amazing is that there’s no CG, no wires, and no stunt doubles. Well, the last bit sounds like they got a bunch of stupid actors. Really it’s just the stunt guys playing the parts. But they do a good job. Not cheesy and not wooden. And you learn that yelling “Fuck Muay Thai!” is a good way to get kicked in the head. Always a good lesson, I feel.
That night also saw me committing another set of changes to Sproutit.com. Here’s the fun thing that’s come up. Today I get a message from Charles saying he’s not seeing any of my additions and (logically) is wondering just what I’m doing with my time. I can’t tell him about the obsessive-compulsive gambling and gun running, but I luckily don’t have to. Turns out the server isn’t looking at the code I’m sending in. Silly server. Now that it’s all fixed, confidence is restored. So, yay.
Yeah, Sproutit. You’re probably interested in what I’m finding out from working on this, aren’t you? Well, inherited code is sometimes really hard to jump into, but I’m getting a good handle on it. The more code you write into a function, the more likely something’s going to fail (yeah, I had to learn that. You’d think I’d already know it, huh?). And that nothing is quite as satisfying as logging in changes 10 minutes after they’re requested. Once again, I love Rails. Really, just for that fact alone.
The rest of the weekend saw Elaine and I watching part of The Pianist and taking Poly to the dog park. No little dogs were in the little dog area this time, so she went in with the big dogs. There were two Maltese’s there which were very friendly (well, the male was) and a Weineramer. He chased her around one time, never even coming close to her. It’s pretty amazing to watch an IG run at full speed. Anyway, a boxer (I think) came later and chased her again. So she was exhausted by the time we left. It does her good, though, just to get to be around and deal with other dogs. We became members for the amazingly high price of $2, too. We’ll have to be careful what we spend money on from now on just to pay for that!
Not much else going on, just work and home life. Oh! We got rid of our fish last weekend. We haven’t been able to take care of him like he really needs, so we thought it better to give him to a home that could. So he’s now living at a pet store in Rogers. I hope he gets healthy again and goes to a good home so he can get even bigger.
Just me trying to be more viral. It’ll never happen with a cat/boss blog like this, though. Confused? Read this. It’s got Max and I feeling pathetic. Thanks, Seth!
Hold Me Like Long Ago
September 7
So what’s up, all? Just a little note here to let you all know what’s up in my world.
Anyway, you guys need to be reading the-loves.com if you’re not already. Just throw it into your RSS reader and enjoy it there, since the design doesn’t really matter (it’s just a template).
So, I’m getting a few hits from the Sproutit.com blog and I can’t express my gratitude to Charles and the other members of Sproutit.com. I’m glad to be working on the project and you can’t beat getting good exposure.
I bet you want some juicy details on Sproutit.com and what I’m doing there, don’t you? Well, too bad. Those damn NDAs(Non-Disclosure Agreements), huh? No, it’s not really that. I don’t want to steal any thunder away from the actual product, but in the coming weeks I’ll try to entice you further. I have to get you slathering before it comes out, so I guess I have my work cut out for me.
Not much is going on around the crib (yeah, I’m that ghetto), just doing housework and working on Ruby on Rails. I feel proud of myself for making my first few SVN commits today on the Sproutit.com project. I finally feel like I’m contributing.
Big congrats go out to Pete for two things. He got a job (yay!) and he got an iBook (more yay!). Maybe now he’ll join me in Rails. Manny got an iBook not too long ago, too, so he needs to start learning himself. Slacker! Lazy slacker!
In sad news, Elaine’s iBook died a couple of days ago. She’s had it for about four years, and it’s not a workhorse, so we’re not sure why it died so suddenlly. I formatted it and installed Tiger on it, then boom! no more iBook. It won’t boot and you can’t install anything on it, so it seems like the hard drive went belly up. I’ve looked at replacement drives on the web and they’re about $250, so maybe soon I’ll get my gig of RAM and she can get a new hard drive and everyone’ll be happy. We’d just buy her a new computer, but we’re not that financially happy just yet.
Well, better get back to killing bugs and closing tickets. See you all on the other side.