Its a simple tool designed to eliminate all distractions when writing.

You can find it on Github.

Using a hosted platform like wordpress.com or WPEngine.com relieves you of most of this burden, but there are still the security exploits constantly being found. It also costs an arm and a leg for a humble personal blog.

Octopress with free hosting on Github is one of the better options. Hosting on Github gives you the benefit of their reliability and CDN (not to mention its free!). Using Octopress means a completely (almost) static site thats easy to maintain and quick to load.

Starting an octopress blog from scratch is dead simple. Follow the directions here. Converting from Wordpress is a little bit tricky, but still manageable. Use ExitWP to convert your posts to markdown. If you have comments convert them to Disqus and they should seamlessly transfer if the URL stays the same.

Following these two guides as well as Octopress’ own documenation I was able to do the entire transfer in an afternoon.

Migrating 40,000 Posts from Wordpress to Octopress

Switching to the Octopress Blogging Engine

Good luck!

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#What remotes am I currently configured for?
git remote -v

#Remove these remotes
git remote rm origin

#Set up new remote
git remote add origin https://github.com/kylethielk/DailyOje.git

#Push existing history to new remote
git push -u origin master

Sidenote: Referring to services like Github as ‘remote hosts’ is disingenuous since git is decentralized. All repositories are treated equal and our daily git routine is simply keeping all of them in sync. Referring to them in this manner can help clarify which copy we are referring to.

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java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Couldn't load mylibrary from loader dalvik.system.PathClassLoader

You can view the contents of your APK with the following command to verify libmylibrary.so is not in the APK:

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unzip -l MyApp.apk

Android Studio’s build tool will not look in the usual place:

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SharedLibrary  : libmylibrary.so
Install        : libmylibrary.so => libs/armeabi/libmylibrary.so

The trick (thanks to this thread: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/adt-dev/nQobKd2Gl_8/Z5yWAvCh4h4J) is to move libmylibrary.so to:

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src/main/jniLibs/armeabi/libmylibrary.so

Voila, your native code is now compiled into your APK. This should work with build tools 0.8+

After much head banging I remembered that I had recently installed Intel HAXM. Taking a stab in the dark I uninstalled HAXM:

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sudo /System/Library/Extensions/intelhaxm.kext/Contents/Resources/uninstall.sh

Voila! All of my VM’s happily start. My emulators run extremely slow, but at least I can run virtual machines. Will update if I figure out how to get them running in parallel.

I was rather late to hop on the Lending Club bandwagon. I live in a state where it is not legal invest on the Lending Club platform. I can however invest on the secondary market.

Admittedly it took me awhile to warm up to the idea of investing on the secondary market. The platform used to SUCK both aesthetically and from a loan filtering standpoint. When there are currently over 100,000 loans to sort through, you need good filtering capabilities. Fortunately both issues have now largely been fixed and its actually quite easy to use.

Its true that you will more than likely pay a markup on any loan purchased through the secondary market. This markup is completely worth the cost as you get to benefit from seeing the lendee’s payment history. I personally think this is a much better indicator of likelihood of defaulting than any other. It certainly gives me more confidence when investing in low quality (but higher paying) loans.

These are the two sets of filter criteria I use(one a slight modification of the other):

For 36 Month Loan Term:

Interest Rate: All Loan Term: 36 Months Outstanding Principal: 0 – Any Loan Status: Issued,Current, Never Late * Remaining Payments: 28 Recent Credit Score: All Credit Score Change: Up or Same Original Note Amount: 25 – Any Asking Price: 0 – 100 Yield to Maturity: 13 – Any Markup/Discount: No more than 1% markup Exclude Loans I have already invested in: Yes

For 60 Month Loan Term:

Interest Rate: All Loan Term: 60 Months Outstanding Principal: 0 – Any Loan Status: Issued,Current, Never Late * Remaining Payments: 50 Recent Credit Score: All Credit Score Change: Up or Same Original Note Amount: 25 – Any Asking Price: 0 – 100 Yield to Maturity: 15 – Any Markup/Discount: No more than 1% markup Exclude Loans I have already invested in: Yes

* One filtering criteria not available but that I still do manually is: “Never been in grace period before.” I immediately reject any that have ever been in grade period. This adds some grunt work, but is important.

Notice I demand a slightly higher rate of return for 60 month loans. Its my opinion that 36 month loans are less likely to default simply because there is less time for something financially devastating to happen in.

I also cap the asking price at $100. It is important to spread your risk out over as many loans as possible. I am currently spread out over 767 loans with only 7 in grace period or worse.

This criteria is pretty strict. There are times when no loans will be available. You can often ‘unlock’ some more by bumping the maximum markup to 2%, but I prefer to wait.

Automatically building your application (i.e with Jenkins) is not so easy. You have to ensure that your private key, certificate and provisioning profile are configured and available. Recently I found out that this is easier said than done.

Ensure your provisioning profile is available

This one is easy. Simply download your provisioning profile from the Developer Center to the build machine and double click it (make sure you are logged in as the user that will be used for your automated builds). xCode will automatically add it to your list of available provisioning profiles. You can see a list of all of your provisioning profiles by browsing to:

~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning\ Profiles/

Add your Certificate and Private Key

This is the tricky part. On your development machine you are more than likely running as an administrator (whereas on your build machine the ‘build user’ should not be). Simply adding your certificate and key file to the System/Login Keychain and just expecting them to work….well it won’t work. The solution is to create a new keychain, add your certificate/key here and tell your build to use this new keychain. Note: the creation of a new keychain is not 100% necessary, but I prefer it. Once you start building multiple projects on one machine it helps keep things organized.

The following is the pseudo code of what I use. First create new keychain:

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#Create keychain
security create-keychain -p <i>YourPassword</i> NewKeychain.keychain

#Import Cert/Key - The -A flag is what allows non-interactive use of cert
security import /path/to/my.cert -t cert -k NewKeychain.keychain -A
security import /path/to/private.p12 -t agg -k NewKeychain.keychain -A

The build script can then be adjusted as so:

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#Load keychain, and unlock it
security list-keychain -s "/var/lib/jenkins/Library/Keychains/NewKeychain.keychain"
security default-keychain -s "/var/lib/jenkins/Library/Keychains/NewKeychain.keychain"
security unlock-keychain -p "YourPassword" "/var/lib/jenkins/Library/Keychains/NewKeychain.keychain"

<Run Build>


#Reset to login keychain
security list-keychain -s "/var/lib/jenkins/Library/Keychains/login.keychain"
security default-keychain -s "/var/lib/jenkins/Library/Keychains/login.keychain"

Fortunately I stumbled on this dead simple guide for running your first unit test in Android Studio: http://nikolaj.hesselholtskov.dk/2013/10/how-to-add-unit-tests-to-android-studio.html

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@interface Vehicle : NSObject

@property (copy,nonatomic) NSString *name;

@end

@interface Motorcycle : Vehicle

@property (copy,nonatomic) NSNumber *engineCC;

@end

If we have an instance of Vehicle and we want to get an instance of a Motorcycle we could manually copy each property:

Manual Property Copy

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Vehicle *vehicle = [Vehicle new];
vehicle.name = @"MyVehicle";

Motorcycle *motorcycle = [Motorcycle new];
motorcycle.name = vehicle.name;
motorcycle.engineCC = [NSNumber numberWithInt:200];

Seems simple enough in this case, but when the property count starts increasing so does the amount of typing. If only there were a better way…:

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+ (void) copyParent:(id)parent intoChild:(id) child
{
    id parentClass = [parent class];
    NSString *propertyName;
    unsigned int outCount, i;

    //Get a list of properties for the parent class.
    objc_property_t *properties = class_copyPropertyList(parentClass, &outCount);

    //Loop through the parents properties.
    for (i = 0; i < outCount; i++)
    {
        objc_property_t property = properties[i];

        //Convert the property to a string.
        propertyName = [NSString stringWithCString:property_getName(property) encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];

        //Get the parent's value for the property
        id value = [parent valueForKey:propertyName];

        //..and copy into the child.
        if ([value conformsToProtocol:@protocol(NSCopying)])
        {
            [child setValue:[value copy] forKey:propertyName];
        }
        else
        {
            [child setValue:value forKey:propertyName];
        }

    }
}

Note: Make sure to import objc/runtime.h:

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#import <objc/runtime.h>

Sample Usage (assuming we put the method in a class called Utils):

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Vehicle *vehicle = [Vehicle new];
vehicle.name = @"MyVehicle";

Motorcycle *motorcycle = [Motorcycle new];
[Utils copyParent:vehicle intoChild:motorcycle];

The final outcome.

Dear Kyle Thielk,

I apologize, but due to technical limitations on how our connection works with Wells Fargo we will be unable resolve your connection problem. Your options at this time are to download your Wells Fargo accounts through Web Connect or contact Wells Fargo to see if Direct Connect is available option.

For Further clarification, you can contact your bank. Again we apologize for the inconvenience this will cause.

Sincerely, Quicken Customer Care

Comforting. Very comforting.

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int a = 2; //Your standard variable
int *b = &a; //An integer pointer

//Prints "The value of a is 2"
NSLog(@"The value of a is %i.",a);

*b = 3;

//Prints "The value of a is 3"
NSLog(@"The value of a is %i",a);

This is your standard pointer example. int *b is an integer pointer that we are assigning the address of int a. The asterisk * is generally called the dereferencing or indirection operator and means “Give me the value stored at the address this pointer points to”. The & operator means “Give me the address in memory that this variable is stored at”.

What can often be confusing is that with one line declaration and initialization short-hand, the asterisk is not performing any dereferencing but is actually simply declaring that this is an integer pointer.

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int *b = &a;

//..is the same as 

int *b;
b = &a;

This snippet of code illustrates how this actually works in memory.

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int a = 2;
int *b = &a;

NSLog(@"%p -> %i",&a, a);
NSLog(@"%p -> %p",&b, b);

The output:

<em>0x7fff5fbff88c -> 2
0x7fff5fbff880 -> 0x7fff5fbff88c</em>

left number: the variables location in memory. right number: the value it stores.

Remember a pointer is like any other variable, it has its own location in memory but its value is simply another memory address. So when you write “*b” you are saying “Give me the value (2) stored at the address (0x7fff5fbff88c).

Pointers to Pointers

With pointers to pointers things get a little more complicated. A pointer can actually point to another pointer. Take the following code.

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int a = 2;
int *b = &a;
int **c = &b; //A pointer to a pointer

NSLog(@"%p -> %i",&a, a);
NSLog(@"%p -> %p",&b, b);
NSLog(@"%p -> %p", &c, c);

The output:

<em>0x7fff5fbff88c -> 2
0x7fff5fbff880 -> 0x7fff5fbff88c
0x7fff5fbff878 -> 0x7fff5fbff880</em>

int **c points to int *b which in turn points to int a. To further illustrate the following examples show how we can reference the same thing in multiple ways.

a == b == **c; //The value 2 &a; == b == c; //The address of a or 0x7fff5fbff88c

Pointers to pointers have practical uses in Objective-C when a method actually needs to return multiple values.

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- (BOOL) printNumber:(int)number error:(NSError **)errorPtr;

NSError *anyError;
[myClass printNumber:&anyError]

printNumber in this case can return a BOOL with the standard return statement and an optional error by setting our *anyError pointer to a new NSError object.

For example a sample implementation of printNumber:

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- (BOOL) printNumber:(int)number error:(NSError **)errorPtr
{
    if(number < 0)
    {
        NSError *newError = [MyErrorFactory newErrorWithDesc:@"Negative numbers are not allowed"];
        *errorPtr = newError;
        return NO;
    }
    else
    {
        NSLog(@"Your number is %i",number);
        return YES;
    }
}

Packing

• Pack light. No seriously pack very light. Budget airlines in Asia have very strict weight limits for baggage. 

• For men use underwear like these that are quick drying and can be washed and dried overnight in a hotel room. I survived on 3-4 of them.

• Favor clothes made from a quick drying material. Cotton takes a long time to dry in a humid climate.

• Bring a laundry bag to keep your dirty clothes in.

• Bring gallon sized zip-lock bags. If some of your clothes do get wet, it helps keep the rest of them dry.

• My backpack was a 70L Osprey Bag. It only just fit on an overhead bin. Consider a slightly smaller bag.

• Laundry can be done on the road fairly inexpensively. On average we paid $1/kg. An average weekly load for the two of us was 3kg. Expect hand washing and hang drying. Dryers are exceedingly rare. Usually took 1-2 days for clothes.

• I survived on one pair of trekking shoes and one pair of flip-flops.

• Sarongs may not be the most manly things but they are invaluable. Mine has acted as a towel, a bed sheet, a scarf, padding for my camera to name a few. You can get them for cheap everywhere in Southeast Asia.

Accommodations

• You can stay dirt cheap. Especially if you are OK with dorm style.  Even if you are not a private room can be had for $10 or cheaper in most places.

• You do however get what you pay for. Expect to pay more for each amenity such as hot water and air conditioner.

• During a particular area’s high season finding a budget room can be stressful. Also more expensive.  For example we were in Indonesia during high season and struggled to find anything for less than $20/night on the Gilis.

• A lot of budget places do not provide top sheets or a blanket, towels, shampoo/soap or toilet paper. Which reminds me, always have a toilet paper roll in your day bag.

• Many of the best options do not have a web presence. So don’t expect to be able to book everything on Agoda.com or booking.com. Sometimes you just have to show up and look at your options in person.

• In general if we felt uncertain about a place (i.e there is no well known backpacker’s area in a big city) we would book the first two nights via Agoda.com and explore other options while there.

• Squat toilets are common in muslim areas.

• A tasting of some of our accommodations:

Travel

• Obviously it varies from country to country, but in general it is very easy to get from place to place.

• Buses are almost always the cheapest option. Buses vary in range from luxurious recliners to “oh my god get me off this thing”. Safety is not a top priority.

• In general when booking with a large bus liner prices are non negotiable. When booking with small tourist agencies prices are always negotiable.

• Budget airlines are WAY cheaper than flights in the USA. Jetstar/ValuAir is to be avoided at all costs. Tiger is hit or miss as is Lion Air.  AirAsia is the by far the best.

• Philippine Airlines deserves its own bullet point for being the very worst run airline I’ve ever been on. Seriously, get your act together guys.

• Budget airlines will nickel and dime you to death. Sure the base price may be $30, but it costs another $30 to check a bag and $8/person to pay by credit card (no joke).

• Most of the airlines have a combined weight limit of 7KG for carry on. On all but one flight (darn you Singapore Airport) we got away with bringing our 15KG/person of baggage on. Check in online, be friendly and act like your bags are light as a feather every time you see an employee.

• We bought almost all of our flights 2-3 days prior. Some we bought the night before. Budget airlines seem to play less pricing games.

Money

• If you have time, sign up for a Charles Schwab Online Checking Account for no foreign ATM fees. 

• The best exchange rate is almost always via an ATM machine or via credit card (90% of places will not take credit cards though or will charge an additional 5%, so don’t count on it).

• Unfortunately most smaller merchants won’t accept the large bills ATM machines spit out. Find a 7-eleven and buy a bottle of water to break your bills.

• Some smaller locations (and all of Myanmar) do not  have ATMs so plan accordingly.

• Being overcharged simply because you are a westerner is common. Try to figure out (by talking to people, hotel staff are a good place to start) how much things should cost.

• I always carried $100-200 in USD just in case I couldn’t get to an ATM or the only one on the entire island breaks (I’m looking at you Gili Air).

General Advice

• Smile. Be friendly. You will have a far more enjoyable time and people will be far more welcoming.

• Do not lose your temper or show your frustration. There will be many, many times when it is easy to do both. Simply smile and walk away.

• Very few prices are not negotiable. More often than not the same exact thing can be bought from 10+ vendors. Negotiate and shop around.

• Be super friendly and joke around with the merchant when negotiating and remember they will tell you anything to get you to fork over you money. Be polite but take everything your told with a grain of salt.

• Don’t buy from children. Doing so only encourages child labor and keeps them from school.

• Embrace cultural differences rather than becoming irritated by them. It sounds easier than it is.

• Customer service is non-existent so don’t expect much. Tipping is rare.

•  Try to space out your mainland and beach trips. Two months straight on a beach might sound appealing, but I promise you that after 3 weeks you will be begging for big city amenities.

• Plan minimally. For each new location I briefly browse www.wikitravel.org. It helps to be aware of the scams of the day, the best transport options and where you are likely to find budget accommodations.

• Try to get off the beaten path. If you stick to the touristy areas you will miss the best parts of travelling.

• Be flexible. There are places we planned on staying one day but loved it and stayed 4. There are places we were disappointed with and left early.

• Get travel health insurance with emergency evacuation coverage. Its cheap and worth every penny (hint: remove trip cancellation coverage and see your policy half in price).

Myanmar. Oppressive Government. Remarkably friendly and welcoming people.

Two weeks before our scheduled arrival Myanmar was struck by 5 separate (minor, but still) bombings. I am so glad we did not cancel (although we almost did, numerous times).

Myanmar truly is largely unaffected by tourism and that is a fantastic thing. Take stunning natural beauty, throw in delicious food, millions of smiling faces genuinely happy to have you and you have one heck of a place to visit. Highly recommended.

If there is one thing I regret about our 8 month trip throughout Southeast Asia, its that we didn’t spend more time in Cambodia.  The temples of Angkor truly are astounding. The people are extremely friendly. The food is delicious. Everything is highly affordable.

I’m just going to be up front about it. Thailand was my least favorite of the 8 countries we visited in Southeast Asia. It is the most touristed (which has its perks though when you are looking for some western amenities), had the least friendly people and the most scams. It did however have some of the best street food and local beer.

The number of scams force you to constantly be on guard making it hard to relax. I was lied to multiple times, approached by scammers/hawkers constantly, double charged in taxis and overall felt the least welcomed by the locals.

That being said there is a lot to do in Thailand and you can do so cheaply thanks to well developed infrastructure. For those into shopping, it can’t be beat.

Granted I have heard numerous people say the same about Vietnam, a country I loved. I am sure living there for 5 months has made me somewhat biased and perhaps I was simply unfortunate in my overall experience with Thailand.

in Chiang Mai.“)

Palawan was one of the highlights of our 9 month SE Asia journey. Some of the most stunning scenery, friendliest people and for the most affordable prices. The people are seriously friendly (Port Barton gets the nod for the most friendly people of our entire trip). Fresh seafood is abundant. Our favorite meals were fish caught 5 minutes prior and cooked on a tiny grill on the stern of the boat. The surrounding islands of Coron are the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Puerto Princesa is the main point of entry into Palawan. An energetic city on the rise. Getting to Port Barton during the rainy season….good luck.  One of our favorite places, ever. We thought El Nido had the most amazing islands anywhere….until we went to Coron.  Diving inside japanese shipwrecks? Check. Crystal clear freshwater lakes? Check. Crystal clear reefs? Check.

Food. Varied, delicious food. This is what I will remember about Malaysia. The food courts (different than food courts we know in the US) are teeming with options. Indian, Chinese and Malay all simmer together to create a hodgepodge of deliciousness. Most dishes for under $2.

Our trip to Malaysia was short at just 2 weeks but we were able to cover quite a bit of ground.  We started in Langkawi, headed to Penang, and finally crossed over to Malaysian Borneo (Kuching).

Langkawi was a beautiful island retreat, Penang a teeming city with more than enough options for the tourist, and Borneo was a nature lover’s dream.

Labuan Bajo is the main launching point for excursions to Komodo National Park. There is a tiny airport a few KM from town (walking into town took us about 50 minutes, not recommended during the heat of the day). The town itself has little draw other than a place to stay and grab a meal. Following the trend of Bali and Lombok during high season expect to pay a lot for a little, especially for accommodations (compared to the rest of Southeast Asia).

The main attraction is the diving/snorkeling/trekking/sight-seeing on the surrounding islands. The scenery is phenomenal, the water crystal clear and the aquatic life abundant. Its a snorkeler’s and diver’s dream.  Seraya island was the best snorkeling I’ve ever done by far.

Labuan Bajo can be difficult to get to but definitely worth the effort. Just keep in mind the expectation that a boat is required for anything of interest.

Direct Amazon Link

I understand that Stephen R. Covey is highy respected and I’m sure he rakes in $5,000+/hour consulting fees but really this book for me still falls into the ‘self help’ genre where most information is common sense and that which isn’t can be found on any ‘self help’ blog for free.

That is not to say I do not agree with the underlying premise of each of the 7 habits. In fact Habit 1 (“Be Proactive”) and 5 (“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”) in particular I think we should all be mindful of every day. Habit 6 is titled “Synergize”, Habit 7 is titled “Sharpen the Saw”. No explanation is needed as to why ‘fluff’ is the first word that comes to mind.

This is how I imagine Covey’s conversation with his publisher after coming up with the idea for the book.

Covey: “I have this great idea for a new book”. Publisher: “Excellent, how far along in the process are you?” Covey: “Finished.” Publisher: “How long is it?” Covey: “15 pages.” Publisher: “What? We can’t sell a 15 page pamphlet for $19.99. Fluff it up!”

1 Month Later:

Covey: “Ok. The book is complete. Still 15 pages of good information, but now with 365 pages of fluff as an added bonus!”

Seriously read this WikiBooks’‘ summary, and save yourself the time and money. Update: Even better read this Forbes’ Summary.

Note: This post is part of my 26 Books in 26 Weeks Goal.