Jason Yee's Blog

Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Pizza Dough

2017-01-14T06:35:00.003-10:00

We've recently discovered Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Pizza Dough and have made some tweaks to the orignial recipe to make 12-inch pizza suitable for two people. These instructions are quite similar to what's on the website except that I bake it a little longer initially so that the gluten-free crust isn't as soggy when we put on the cheese.

Ingredients

8 oz of the pizza mix (half of the 16 oz package), approximately 1.7 cups
3/4 cup water
1 tsp yeast (half of the included packet)
1 egg
1 Tbsp olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425° F and oil a 12-inch pizza pan
Heat the water to 100° F. I usually heat about half a cup in a microwave for 30 seconds and then add/remove water. Some recommend a lower or higher temperature and just use your discretion.
In a large bowl, combine water and yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes while the yeast dissolves. Stir in eggs and oil. Add GF Pizza Crust Mix and stir until ingredients are completely combined. The dough is going to be a little sticky and that's expected. This is step 2 in the original recipe.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise 20 minutes.
Place dough in the center of the prepared pizza pan. Cover dough with a large piece of plastic wrap because it's going to be a little sticky. Using your hands, roll or press the dough flat to fit the pan. Use your fingers on top of the plastic to create a crust edge
Remove plastic wrap and bake without toppings for 12 minutes. This is 5 minutes longer than the recipe recommends, and I bake it a little longer initially so that the gluten-free crust isn't as soggy when we put on the cheese. I got 12 minutes after trying the recommended 7 minutes and also 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and cover with your favorite sauce and toppings. Store-bought is fine 😀. Bake for an additional 10-13 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Makes one 12-inch pizza.

What to do after finishing Codecademy Web Design

2015-10-04T06:01:00.000-10:00

This is a tutorial on what to do once you've finished building a website in the fantastic Codecademy tutorials and want to make your own web pages and limited apps. This tutorial specifically describes how to set up a website hosted by GitHub using the Github Desktop GUI in OSX, though everything should look about the same in Windows.

Check it out here: https://github.com/jwsy/example-website

Prerequisites

Know the fundamentals of web design, HTML, CSS, and JS from Codecademy or another course
Register for and setup a GitHub account at https://github.com
Install the Atom text editor, "a hackable text editor for the 21st Century"
Install GitHub Desktop, "a seamless way to contribute to projects on GitHub and GitHub Enterprise."

Overview

We'll start by setting up a your "development environment" and then creating and contributing to a repository in GitHub. Ultimately, we'll finish with a page hosted on the internet that you can access from anywhere.

Initial Setup

Install the Atom text editor
Get an account at https://github.com. Once you've created your account, create a new repository by clicking the '+' sign next to your profile pic in the upper right.
Create a repository, in this example I create one named example-website. Make it Public and use the defaults.
Once the repository is created, install and configure GitHub Desktop. Configuration requires you to sign in with your Github account credentials that you created earlier.
In GitHub Desktop, click the '+' in the upper left and clone the repo you just created.

Congratulations, you're ready to start building your webpage! 😄

Create your local webpage

Once you've cloned the repo to your computer, let's build a local webpage stored on your computer. Click the branch button and create a new branch named gh-pages -- this name is important and more detail about this can be found in the GitHub Pages documentation.
In GitHub Desktop, edit your repo in your text editor Atom by right-clicking the repo and selecting Open in Atom. Be sure that the repo you're working on is gh-pages as shown in the upper-right of the below image.

You should see Atom like this, and note the location in the window title. The location should look like /Users//GitHub/example-website
In Atom, create an index.html file by right-clicking the repo name and selecting New File, and name the file index.html.
Add in your basic HTML to index.html. This should feel just like the Codecademy coding "IDE" (Interactive Development Environment) except now you're out of a browser and creating an actual file on your computer. You can copy the one I used in the example from here:

Keen eyed readers will notice that I missed the closing '>' in my title tag. It doesn't change anything in the tutorial, but good eye 👍
You can view this actual file on your computer by right-clicking the index.html file and selecting "Show in Finder"

Double-clicking the index.html file should open it up in a web browser where you can see your code rendered like it would be if you were to host it on the internet.

Try making more changes to index.html and refreshing your browser.

Host your page in GitHub Pages

Now that you've got a working page in your repo, make a commit and push it to GitHub where it will be hosted. To do this, go back to GitHub Desktop, enter a commit message like "Create index.html" and click the Commit to gh-pages button -- it's important to make sure you're committing to gh-pages. Then click the Sync button in the upper right to copy your repo to GitHub Pages.
Visit your project site at https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/example-website. If you change the branch from master to gh-pages, you should see the files you've committed.
Finally, view your page at http://YOUR_USERNAME.github.io/example-website (mine is http://jwsy.github.io/example-website) -- congratulations! 😄

Update your website

Go back to Atom and add a css folder for CSS and a style.css stylesheet for your page.

To add the folder, right-click below the files in the left pane.
Right-click the new css folder and create a style.css file.
Edit style.css to add some color to the page, just like how you did in Codecademy. See my papayawhip example here.
Edit index.html and add a link to the stylesheet you just added. In this example, I add:
```
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/style.css">
```
View your local website the same way you did before by selecting Show in Finder and opening the file in your browser. Mine looked like this, and note the URL that starts with "file:///"
Go back to GitHub Desktop and take a look at how it's tracked your changes. You should see your stylesheet and HTML as the two changes.

Like before, add a commit message, click the Commit to gh-pages button, and click the Sync button.

If you want to make more changes, follow the same workflow of editing locally, committing, and syncing.
Go to your project site on GitHub, visit the gh-pages branch, and make sure that your new CSS folder and updated index page are there.

And finally, visit your updated page with your updated code.

Get into the console View -> Developer -> JavaScript Console and see that you can do JQuery selectors and actions.

Congratulations: you've made your own simple website using the skills you've learned at Codecademy and hosted it in GitHub Pages! 😄

Simplest Twitter data gathering & initial analysis

2013-12-20T06:36:00.000-10:00

I’ve been trying to lower the barriers for entry into data mining & analysis, and think that I’m at the end of the rainbow thanks to code from Mining the Social Web and the Wakari platform that you can check out here: https://www.wakari.io/sharing/bundle/jwsy/Mining%20the%20Social%20Web%20in%20Wakari

Creating an account, executing the notebook, and analyzing data takes _under a minute_ if you have Twitter API keys handy.

The code adapted from the first chapter of Mining the Social Web takes you from nothing to analyzing the lexicographical diversity of tweets, and if that piques your interest, there’s a lot more where it came from at http://miningthesocialweb.com/ like this recent post about analyzing the Amazon Prime Air Twitter reaction: http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/ptwobrussell/Mining-the-Social-Web-2nd-Edition/blob/master/ipynb/__Understanding%20the%20Reaction%20to%20Amazon%20Prime%20Air.ipynb

Bonus Shortcat love - keyboard shortcut in Chrome to Duplicate a tab

2013-06-08T16:58:00.003-10:00

So after a few minutes of using Shortcat (http://shortcatapp.com/), I'm a huge fan :)

First, I've found a way to get the ribbon interface in Mac OSX Office 2011 that I've described in this post: http://jyeee.blogspot.com/2013/06/ribbon-interface-in-mac-office-2011.html

It's also given me a keyboard shortcut (sequence) in Chrome to Duplicate a tab:

--Space (cmd-shift-space)
'.' (period)
-k (control-k) - note that this could be a different letter, and control-e would work just as well
-Enter (control-enter) which performs a right-click
'd' - selects Duplicate
Enter

Keyboard shortcut for ribbon interface in Mac Office 2011 with @shortcatapp

2013-06-08T16:44:00.000-10:00

Thanks to Shortcat (http://shortcatapp.com/), I can access the Office ribbon interface in Mac OSX Office 2011 with a keyboard shortcut!

After installing Shortcat, use this key sequence to select the Home ribbon tab (which is alt,h):

--Space (cmd-shift-space) to activate Shortcat
'.' (period) to display all available Shortcat options
-J (control-j or whatever letter is above the home ribbon tab) to select the home tab
Enter

While a casual observer may think that this is too much of a hassle, this keyboard sequence is extremely helpful when you're working with multiple large monitors and your mouse is far from where you need it to be.

No audio from Thunderbolt to HDMI

2012-12-08T17:20:00.000-10:00

I recently bought a Belkin mini DisplayPort Thunderbolt-to-HDMI cable so I could watch videos played on a MacBook Air on my TV. Unfortunately, while video played on the TV, there was no audio. Video played, but there was no sound.

To get audio, I followed the instructions on this page: http://www.justanswer.com/mac-computers/5kqkc-no-sound-youtube-sound-everything-else-i-e.html.

The instructions from the wise Mac Druid were to delete the Macromedia folder: ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia

Open up the Terminal app and type these two commands:

cd ~/Library/Preferences
rm -rf Macromedia/

Growl notification trigger not opening app or having no reaction on click

2012-11-17T06:42:00.002-10:00

Growl is a great way of being politely notified of system events in OSX. I recently upgraded and bought Growl on the app store, and like many other users, I had problems like:

"Clicking notification doesnt open the app that triggered the notification"

"zero reaction on clicks when a new notification pops up"

I had this problem because I had a previous version of Growl before upgrading.

To restore this very handy functionality, install the Growl Version Detective (http://growl.info/downloads#generaldownloads currently 1.2.2) and upgrade the Framework version on your app like shown below.

After updating the Framework version for iTerm and Adium, I was able to click on the Growl notification and have that action restore the focus to the respective applications.

Select your app and click "Upgrade FW"

Change OSX volume keyboard shortcut

2012-04-24T01:32:00.002-10:00

There isn't a way to customize the keyboard shortcut to increase or decrease (i.e. change) the volume in OSX. That's unfortunate, because it's difficult to hit the fn button in the far bottom left of the keyboard and the F12 button in the far upper right of the keyboard if you're holding a beautiful baby like Bronwyn Massey.

This article provides instructions on how to make your own keyboard shortcut to change the volume on your mac with Applescript and Quicksilver. Since Applescript comes with OSX, you'll only need to download Quicksilver (http://qsapp.com/). Quicksilver is a very handy app that helps you quickly launch programs and has a global hotkey feature for free (vs. Alfred that requires you to buy their powerpack).

1. Get the Applescript code here or in my GitHub repo (https://github.com/jwsy/ChangeVolumeApplescript) and paste it into the Applescript Editor. You'll have to repeat these steps for each individual script.

2. Test the code by hitting the Run button. You should see the syntax highlighting and a growl notification in the upper right. If you don't have growl, just delete lines 6-12.

3. Save the script with File Format: Application. You'll need to move the resulting DVolume.app into the /Applications/Utilities folder or somewhere that Quicksilver will index in its catalog. OSX might prevent you from saving directly to /Applications/Utilities, so you might have to save to your desktop first and then copy it to /Applications/Utilities.

4. Finally, open your Quicksilver preferences and create a new HotKey (i.e. keyboard shortcut) in the Triggers tab.

Creating a keyboard shortcut is easy in Quicksilver ^_^

I set the keyboard shortcut to option+F3. Note that I'm using my F keys as standard function keys as shown below in the Keyboard settings. If you don't have this checked below (no check is the default setting), you can set the shortcut to fn+F3.

cd to iTerm2

2012-03-10T12:20:00.000-10:00

iTerm2 (http://www.iterm2.com/) is the best terminal app that OSX has and is loaded with great features including awesome search, built-in autocomplete, mouseless copy, and the very visually cool Instant Replay.

When I want to open the Finder folder I'm viewing in iTerm, use Quicksilver to launch this app by Stefan van den Oord: http://code.google.com/p/iterm2/wiki/AppleScript#Example_of_"cd_to"_command. This works perfectly except when I have a folder with an exclamation mark in it, so I made a small change to the below code so that it sends a ' instead of a \".

Steps to install from the Google Code page:

Open "AppleScript Editor" (/Applications/Utilities)
In a new document, paste the AppleScript code you'll find below
Save the script to your desktop, name it "cd to", use the file format "Application" (do not select "run only" if you want to be able to change the script later on)
Give the script a nice icon if you want
Drag the script you saved in /Applications/Utilities into the toolbar of any Finder window

Codecademy - Functions in Javascript Lesson 2 - Argument Types, part 1

2012-01-09T14:08:00.000-10:00

I just had a nice little hour of fun with Codecademy but wound up taking too much time on this problem: http://www.codecademy.com/courses/functions_in_javascript/1#!/exercises/2

Here's a hint (and then an answer) to help you figure this one out. The unstated goal is to see the output of cube("test"). How can you do that?

Highlight the lines below for some additional help:

Perhaps you could send the results of that call to the console log?

Line 6 in the example shows how to put the output of cube(5) in the console ;)

Blogger "naked domains" on goDaddy

2011-04-17T11:48:00.000-10:00

I'm sure that this is a title that Bob Parsons would love.

If you want to host a Blogger blog on a naked domain i.e. "http://mystady.com" vs. "http://www.mystady.com", then mystady has the answer for you: (http://mystady.com/2011/01/solved-blogs-may-not-be-hosted-at-naked.html?showComment=1303072919290#c6469598480890494930). It definitely works, and here's a screencap of what your goDaddy DNS Manager should look like.

Note that there is no "www" CNAME entry and I had to go to my Google Apps admin page to disable Sites.

Import Posterous to Blogger --fixing bX-q5k3d4

2011-04-17T03:48:00.000-10:00

I just recently imported a Posterous blog to Blogger. I thought that Posterous was very convenient with its crosspost capability, iPhone app, and bookmarklet, but the load performance was slow and the site search was broken.

While Posterous also has a convenient import tool to go from Wordpress/Blogger/Tumblr/etc., there's no tool that lets you go from Posterous to Blogger and it required a little bit of a hack to do this due to a "Sorry, the import failed due to a server error. The error code is bX-q5k3d4"

1. Get a Wordpress account and use the Import tool with Posterous. You'll need to enter your Posterous credentials.

2. Export your Wordpress blog that contains all of your Posterous posts. Doing this will create an xml file that isn't compatible with the Blogger import tool and gives you that bX-q5k3d4 error code.

3. Use the wordpress2blogger (http://wordpress2blogger.appspot.com/) app to convert the Wordpress. Note that this app restricts you to files smaller than 1MB. What you can do is import small portions of your blog with the Wordpress exporter in step 2.

4. Import the fixed xml file via the Settings -> Blog Tools -> Import Blogs tool in Blogger

Surfing at Kalaeloa Beach, aka White Plains

2007-03-05T22:52:00.001-10:00

Kalaeloa Beach, aka White Plains, is a great place to learn how to surf. With a military ID, you can rent a board for $5/hr and with a good guide, learn to surf in minutes! Just remember to get the biggest board possible as a beginner and you'll be fine :). Here are the directions to White Plains beach.

1. H-1 West to Kapolei Exit #2
2. LEFT turn going South on Fort Barrette Ave, pass the hospital (right) and school (left)
3. LEFT on Roosevelt Rd, immediately after the abandoned guard shack
4. RIGHT on Coral Sea Rd, fourth RIGHT
5. LEFT on Tripoli St, past the airport on the right--look for the sign to the Shore Shack
6. Park and surf!

Turn off/stop/disable Final Showing Markup view in Word

2006-10-24T21:15:00.002-10:00

This macro will make MS Word start up in "Final" as opposed to "Final
Showing Markup." It's quite annoying when Final Showing Markup is the
default view--this has to stop/be disabled; I hope that this is
addressed in the next version of Office. Back to the point, this macro
will take you back to the days of Word XP and stop the Final Showing
Markup view before it rears its ugly head.

Final Showing Markup *is* shown by default if changes are tracked on a
document. For example, edit a document of your own, track changes,
then send it to a friend. Even though your friend doesn't want to see
the markup, they *WILL* because it's there. This little VBA macro
makes it so that you won't see the markup by default anymore, and
instead will see the Final (without markup) view.

Just dump these lines into a module in your Normal template (hit
ALT+F11 to start up the Visual Basic Editor, right click Modules under
the -Normal- directory and add a Module). Since the name of this sub
is "AutoOpen," it will execute whenever you open a document.

''''''''' VB Start '''''''''
Sub AutoOpen()
With ActiveWindow.View
.ShowRevisionsAndComments = False
.RevisionsView = wdRevisionsViewFinal
End With
CommandBars("Reviewing").Visible = False
'''OPTIONAL: previous line turns off Reviewing toolbar
End Sub
''''''''' VB End '''''''''

Hope this helps!
jyeee