Just Too Techy - Half Man/Half Geek

And on to Android...

2015-03-01T09:06:00.001+00:00

So this was my first view of my new life in Android.

Literally taking grasp of the invitation to Open, I have entered into the Android Kingdom.

There was, of course, a period of reflection and research that I will touch on in later posts. But my decision was followed very swiftly by the jump.

So far I am loving it. Not least due to the excellent OnePlus One phone that I am now using. Again, though, more on that later.

For now, this concludes my inaugural post from my phone. (Actually, my first post failed from the Blogger app so I'm reposting this via Bloggeroid).

posted from Bloggeroid

Test from Bloggeroid

2015-03-01T08:56:00.001+00:00

A lively empty inbox

posted from Bloggeroid

Rails play with Devise and Mongoid

2012-05-25T11:24:00.001+01:00

Here's a recent github repo https://github.com/rujmah/bearded-octo that I've set up.

Just playing with Devise to see what I can do with User models. I'm not too experienced with understanding how User models can work so this has been a learning curve.

From the readme:

Currently, Admin and Company. For 'Company' read 'regular User'.

Wanted to set up a User model that allowed for overall SuperAdmin/Access-All-Areas for Admin and restricted areas for other groups of users.

Several ways to go from here, but I have implemented (this round at least) a system where the controllers before filters figure out who gets access.

Quick but messy as I had to define methods on each controller (see below).

Will be looking at other ways of doing this going forward. (Probably from looking at the Devise example apps: https://github.com/plataformatec/devise/wiki/Example-Applications)

Ryan Bates RailsCasts really got me up to speed very quickly on Rails authentication. Particularly, the following:

http://railscasts.com/episodes/250-authentication-from-scratch-revised

http://railscasts.com/episodes/209-introducing-devise

http://railscasts.com/episodes/235-omniauth-part-1

http://railscasts.com/episodes/241-simple-omniauth

4 lines for Platform 12

2012-04-20T09:11:00.001+01:00

Was it last-near this platform gave
forth upon 'crete to this knave
Of footage carried boot and shoe
'til began the journey's new.

Victorian Star Wars Portraits: Star Wars, but with style

2012-04-12T18:27:00.001+01:00

via thecuriousbrain.com

Wonderful artwork re-imagining Star Wars in a more civilised age.

From Greg Peltz: http://gregpeltz.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/my-kind-of-scum.html

Available here: http://www.acmearchivesdirect.com/search.jhtm?category=439&keywords=peltz

Gist: Ubuntu + RVM cheatsheet

2012-03-29T16:30:00.001+01:00

Just created the following GIST cheatsheet based on this post by Ryan Bigg. Never start ruby dev on a fresh Ubuntu distro without it!

https://gist.github.com/2238366

Posterous Acquisition: End of an Era?

2012-03-13T11:51:00.001+00:00

So Posterous has announced that it has been bought by Twitter.

Multiple/Hypercubed reactions on this one (some gleaned, some of my very own cognation):

Really? Twitter is able to buy stuff? How are they even making money?
Cool! One cool service has bought another cool service? Cool!
Boo! End of and era (in web terms because lets face it its been a couple of years rather than whatever an Era is which is probably like I don't know at least 100 years or something).
We're doomed! They just want the talent. Your blog's days are numbered.
Hopeful ¦:¬s Maybe Twitter will do something cool with Posterous?

Official Posterous Announcement - http://blog.posterous.com/big-news

Twitter Announcement - http://blog.twitter.com/2012/03/welcoming-posterous-team-to-flock.html

Wired - http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/03/twitter-posterous/

ZDNet - http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/mergers-and-acquisitions/2012/03/13/twitter-picks-up-microblogging-site-posterous-40095244/

GeekBeat - http://geekbeat.tv/tweets-meet-microblogs-as-twitter-buys-posterous/

How MIT's Hybrid Bike Wheel Came to Life | Co.Design

2010-09-01T14:27:00.001+01:00

via fastcodesign.com

Can't wait to buy one of these!

Posted via email from rujmah's Dis-Collected Thoughts

test post for @bwanakijana

2010-07-30T14:28:00.001+01:00

A video:

A picture:

http://www.google.com

Posted via email from rujmah's Dis-Collected Thoughts

The Mast Brothers on Vimeo

2010-07-29T12:43:00.001+01:00

via vimeo.com

Evocative video about two sibling chocolatiers.

Posted via email from Bread Breaking

Lance Armstrong on 'Quitting' - Best Cameo Ever

2010-07-29T11:26:00.001+01:00

via youtube.com

This is my favourite film cameo.

The beautifully simple expression of the classic 'pep talk' scene and the absurdity of the moment is what makes it a surprisingly effective piece of communication.

Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and Story driven. Straight out of Made to Stick's 6 principles: http://www.madetostick.com/excerpts/

Posted via email from Becourse

Star Wars Toy Painting by Robert Burden

2010-07-21T17:56:00.001+01:00

via youtube.com

I love it! This beautiful work by Robert Burden shows the effect that Star Wars toys had on the imagination of some people from our generation.

The hours we would have spent playing with these toys and getting to know every inch of them. The memories we have of them.

My mother once managed to pick up a whole box of Star Wars figures from a charity store for me and it was like a dream come true. I remember losing Han Solo (Empire Strikes Back version) on the beach at Brighton and it being like the world ending.

When I saw the line down the length of the leg of the Tauntaun I could tell immediately it was emulating the toy and not the fictional creature. I can recognise the angle of Luke Skywalker's arms as he protrudes from the toy's stomach.

Clearly this is a man who knows his Star Wars figures and, like me, enjoys them as much as I did. He's still got his, though, and I'm jealous.

Posted via email from SCiFi Junkie

The Essence of Gary Vay-ner-chuk: He gives a sh*take

2010-07-21T12:00:00.001+01:00

Gary rocks. He just does. \m/

Sure, he's charismatic. Yes, he uses the odd bit of chewy language. Ok, he's loud.

But, it works. People listen. Better still: they act.

Gary's communication elicits a response and action from his listeners. Positive or negative - it's hard not to respond to his words.

And here's the reason: He actually cares. About his audience, his commenters - about people in general. He gives a shitake about you, me, everyone.

I know! Crazy, isn't it. I mean, he listens and responds to criticism, comments or whatever. He engages with his community.

If you've never heard Gary Vaynerchuk speak, take a look two of my favourtite Gary V talks. Starting with the shorter of the two (15 minutes) from the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo 2008 and followed, for the more patient, with his keynote from Rails Conf 2010 (1 hour).

O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo 2008

Rails Conf 2010

Better still check out Gary's original show Wine Library TV http://tv.winelibrary.com/ and his website http://www.garyvaynerchuk.com

For more keynotes see http://video.garyvaynerchuk.com/keynotes

Got a Gary V vid you want to share with me? (If it's one of him beating up an old lady, I don't want to know...)

Posted via email from Becourse

Meet Flipboard for iPad

2010-07-21T09:31:00.001+01:00

via youtube.com

Cool looking aggregation app for the iPad.

But, a slightly weird - if polished - video. The 'friends' standing either side of the sofa are a little creepy and the presenter seems to lack a little, erm... va va voom, shall we say?

Interesting demo though. Definately, one to check out.

Posted via email from rujmah's Dis-Collected Thoughts

Jon Crosby on Rack Middleware and Cloudkit

2010-07-20T17:06:00.001+01:00

via mwrc2009.confreaks.com

If you really want a deep dive into middleware this is a very interesting talk.

But, be warned: Unless you are rack/rails/json fan this is going to be way to geeky for you.

Posted via email from rujmah's Dis-Collected Thoughts

Darren Rowse: How Preparing A Sermon is Similar to Writing Blog Posts

2010-07-09T13:13:00.001+01:00

via problogger.net

This is an interesting video where Darren takes us through the preparation of his sermon and its similarities to writing a blog post. See the transcript in the blog post if you prefer to skim and read rather than watch the video.

Sermons are an interesting parallel to public speaking and presenting. It's a presentation style that has a lot in common with what the modern speaker or sales person is trying to do. There are lessons that can be learnt passed over to both camps. I'll be writing about these in later posts.

For now enjoy Darren's video!

Posted via email from Becourse

Amazon.co.uk Grocery Beta

2010-07-09T12:18:00.001+01:00

Grocery--beta

Find everything you need to stock your kitchen cupboards. You'll find fresh food like fruit and vegetables and meat & poultry. We also have an extensive range of dried goods including cereals, pasta and biscuits, snacks & crisps and baking supplies. Also, browse our range of alcohol and beverages, including beer, wine, tea and coffee. (beta and feedback--what's this?)

via amazon.co.uk

Really interesting new beta from Amazon: Groceries. http://amzn.to/bCyqn2

Seen some attempts at online groceries with varied success. Obviously, the supermarkets seem to have the edge at the moment. Will be interesting to see if Amazon can cut off a piece of the pie.

It's early days, but I'm fairly interested to see how it develops. Whilst not having a track record of selling food, they do engage third-party vendors well enough to potentially make this work.

The Grocery site is still very much in the Amazon model, so ordering a weekly shop as one might be used to doing from Tesco or Waitrose would be a bit of a head shift. (Couldn't find any milk, for example).

But, there is certainly a lot to look around that is weird and wonderful, and fresh! Such as the salubrious 10lb Traditional Monster Pie - 4.5kg http://amzn.to/bvdZOc http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KlHHiJ83L._SL160_.jpg or the intriguing Upita De Los Reyes Tortas De Aceite Sugared Olive Oil Biscuits 180g http://amzn.to/c1JkqM http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41RdM9iMDOL._SL160_.jpg

What would be interesting would be to attempt ordering as much of a weekly shop and seeing what happens. Am trying to convince my wife to do this now. For reasons of research, you understand.

That and it would be cool to mention to the other parents in the school playground: "Oh, yes. We do all our grocery shopping through Amazon, you know."

I'm so shallow...

Posted via email from Bread Breaking

Amazing Lego Mario model built using 3D scanner - Holy Kaw!

2010-07-09T09:41:00.001+01:00

via holykaw.alltop.com

One for my son, the Mario fanatic, I think...

Posted via email from SCiFi Junkie

TOMS Shoes - A Pair of New Shoes is Given to a Child in Need With Every Pair Purchased

2010-07-08T00:30:00.001+01:00

via toms-shoes.co.uk

What an amazing business model. TOMS give away a pair of shoes for each one bought.

This is a business. Not a charity. This is their model.

Love ideas like that this that push us out of ourselves.

Posted via email from rujmah's Dis-Collected Thoughts

Ridley Scott on Life In A Day

2010-07-07T14:03:00.001+01:00

via youtube.com

Here's Ridley Scott on A Day in the Life - a project where he is inviting the world to make a film on July 24th 2010 and upload it to YouTube.

See Mashable: http://mashable.com/2010/07/07/ridley-scott-youtube-life-day
and the official YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/lifeinaday

Posted via email from rujmah's Dis-Collected Thoughts

Dan Pink's 'Drive' animated by RSA

2010-07-07T11:06:00.001+01:00

via youtube.com

Ok, this is amazing.

I have seen a talk 'animated' before on a whiteboard and wasn't very impressed. Watching this video I have to say I think that my disappointment then was due to the style of drawing and the content of the speech being animated.

However, this 'presimation' (I'm trademarking that!) is quite brilliant. It fuses the two unique talents of the speaker and artist in an electrifying presentation that hooks you at the start and carries you through to the conclusion.

Dan Pink is an amazing speaker with fascinating content. The artist has an attractive and comfortable style (to me at least).

But, what must bring them together is the content. It matters not one jot, sir, if you have the most fanciful of techniques and oodles of entertain-er-mental-tudes in your presentation if the presentee walks away with nothing of value. (Not to dismiss the value of entertainment.)

I submit this one of my favourite presentations. In fact, it has inspired me (as all good art should do). There will be a new static page on the Becourse blog, very soon, displaying the favourite top ten presentations. Or some such.

My, one criticism was encapsulated by what my wife said when I showed her the presentation: "Shame we can't see the whole drawing."

A sentiment that seems to have been shared in the comments on the post on the RSA website: http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/2010/04/08/rsa-animate-drive/

What can I say? I like take-aways. (If anyone knows how to get ahold of the entire image, let me know.)

If you prefer your talks unfettered by such visual stimuli you can see the entirety of Dan Pink's talk to the RSA here: http://www.thersa.org/events/vision/vision-videos/dan-pink-drive

or on YouTube (bigger):

Posted via email from Becourse

Using Mongoid without Rails

2010-06-28T10:57:00.001+01:00

There are many a few ruby Object Mappers for MongoDB as well as the straight driver which is pretty good.

But the fight for me seems to be coming down to MongoMapper or Mongoid. Both seem to favour Rails (which I am not using for my current project), but I am leaning towards Mongoid at present since it has better documentation (and I am dumb) as well as better support for embedding. I may be proved wrong but I am playing with it for the moment and am starting to enjoy my MongoDB learning experience a bit more as a result.

I've just posted on the Mongoid Google Group about how I got Mongoid working without Rails and most of the rest of this post is duplication of what I've put there. With a few extras.

http://groups.google.com/group/mongoid/browse_thread/thread/8c77121c962e1818

Using: ruby 1.9.1p378 (2010-01-10 revision 26273) [i386-darwin9.8.0]
( on OS X) with MongoDB installed locall (though I will be trying it out with MongoHQ as well)

I ran the following script:

require 'mongoid'

Mongoid::Config.instance.from_hash({"database" => "oid"})

class Tweeter
include Mongoid::Document
field :user
embeds_many :tweets
end

class Tweet
include Mongoid::Document
field :status

embedded_in :tweeter, :inverse_of => :tweets
end

# just create user
user = Tweeter.new(:user => 'bill')
user.save

# create tweet and user
tweet = Tweet.new(:status => "This is a tweet!")
tweet.tweeter = Tweeter.new(:user => 'ted')
tweet.save

With the following output:

MONGODB admin['$cmd'].find({:ismaster=>1}, {}).limit(-1)
MONGODB admin['$cmd'].find({:buildinfo=>1}, {}).limit(-1)
MONGODB oid['tweeters'].insert([{"user"=>"bill",
"_id"=>"4c286c1f2ad5480258000001"}])
MONGODB oid['tweeters'].insert([{"user"=>"ted",
"_id"=>"4c286c1f2ad5480258000003", "tweets"=>[{"status"=>"This is a
tweet!", "_id"=>"4c286c1f2ad5480258000002"}]}])

The key thing is to take a look at the lib/mongoid/config.rb in Mongoid and structure your

Mongoid::Config.instance.from_hash({"database" => "oid"})

call accordingly with the correct host, port, user, pwd, etc.

Check out the Mongoid docs for more info on what I'm doing here.

Worth noting that I will be using this with Sinatra, so will update this blog with any peculiarities that arise.

Good day, sir.

Posted via email from rujmah's Dis-Collected Thoughts

Books I'm Determined to Read Before I Die from @brandonacox

2010-06-06T18:14:00.001+01:00

1 of 27
Click to view large
Download this gallery (ZIP, 11024 KB)
Download full size (375 KB)

via creativecox.com

Cool list.

Posted via web from rujmah's Dis-Collected Thoughts

Building an app walkthrough using (heroku, sinatra, mongodb and stuff) from @joelg87

2010-06-05T17:58:00.001+01:00

What I achieved

Set up hosting on heroku

Linked domain name with heroku

Used Sinatra to quickly get going

Set up local development environment using passenger

Delved into HAML & SASS

Used mongdb with heroku using the mongodb ruby driver & MongoHQ

Got a landing page up on Quotally.com to collect emails and save them to mongo

Added a little AJAX

via newtoruby.com

Great little (well, long) post on Joel Gascoigne's blog about implementing a little webapp on Heroku using Sinatra, haml, sass, mongodb and some AJAX.

Really getting a lot out developing the project I am working on at the moment is Sinatra. Not least the excellent community. Need to share more myself at some point when I'm up to speed.

Just found Rails and other Ruby frameworks a little too much to start with. Almost moved too fast for me.

Am I getting old?

Well, yes - but that's not the issue here. I'm of the school that says you should be able to code in an text editor before you use an IDE, because how else are you to know when the IDE is wrong? What about when there isn't an IDE?

Sinatra allows me to pick up things at my own pace and learn as I go. I fully expect to be using Merb and Rails (Rails 3?) at some later date. But for now I'm having fun discovering Rack and other low level stuff (well, they're low level for me) that will serve me later on when I'm flying along on rails

Posted via web from rujmah's Dis-Collected Thoughts

@Heroku Evangelist - Dream job and Why isn't everyone an evangelist?

2010-06-03T13:30:00.001+01:00

Heroku Evangelist

Our first full-time evangelist will have a passion for communicating how developers, architects, administrators, and testers can use technology to make their lives dramatically easier. You should be extroverted, well-organized, passionate about technology, and love nothing (ok, almost nothing) better than learning about and explaining new technologies. You should be an active developer of Ruby applications, ideally with a record of participation in open-source Ruby or Rails-related projects.

Command-line tools and vi should excite, not scare you. You should be able to communicate as well with slides, pictures, hand gestures, and analogies as you can with code, a text editor, and a white board. You should also be able to explain in 2 minutes, 20 minutes, and 2 hours why you love Heroku and why other technologists should care, and you should be equally excited about spending similar amounts of time listening to Heroku users, customers, and partners give their own feedback.

The Heroku Evangelist will be responsible for: developing demonstration Heroku applications and sample code, creating web site content to explain technical concepts to technical users (including code samples, documentation, videos, screen casts, etc.), speaking at conferences and user groups, actively participating in forums and discussions, helping to organize Heroku’s overall evangelism efforts, and actively meeting and listening to partners, customers, and enthusiasts to learn about their hopes and dreams for Heroku technology.

via jobs.heroku.com

Ever since I met Jeff Barr - http://www.jeff-barr.com/ - I've wanted a job like his. Jeff is the Amazon Web Services Evangelist. His job is to go all over the world and just talk about all the great things AWS is going. He meets with everyone (time allowing) who wants to talk to him and gets to see the exciting things people are doing with AWS technology. He meets start-ups working out of bedrooms and then goes to speak to 3000 people in an auditorium. He is paid to be excited about AWS and to propgate that excitement in others. Essentially, his passion is his job.

It didn't surprise me when I discovered @GuyKawasaki was the first Evangelist for Apple. I certainly would have hired him for the role. Imagine meeting with Guy at that time: Infectious love of life, generous with his time and obsessed about what Apple could do for you. Wouldn't you end up buying from Apple?

The idea of being paid to be one who was zealous about a product always intruiged me (and attracted me). I am someone who thrives on passion and dies from the lack of it. If the product is crap the only reason someone will be excited is because they stand to make a lot of money out of it if they sell it. But, an evangelist is someone who shares the Good News - There is a better way of doing it! You don't have to live that way any more! - with implication that the Good News lasts long after any transaction. It's relational. It's a life choice. It's for you!

I've been using Heroku pretty much everyday after I discovered it (okay, with a little trepidation over the first week) and I'm a complete convert. I love its cost (nothing!) for initial developments and test apps, and its incremental pricing structure when you want to get serious. Its ease of access for the uninitiated through to it's advanced features.
It's got me using using technologies (Git, Rails) which I've been meaning to get into for ages and finding new ways to do things (Sinatra) that I hadn't considered before.

Yes, this was initially a post to start my pitch to the Heroku guys - but, it's evolved into something much more.

Don't we all want to be evangelists? I mean, no one enjoys being a cynic, do they? Don't we all want to find the hidden treasure and share it with everyone else? Don't we all want to be working from a point of passion instead of just sustinence? I guessing the answer from most people would be "Yes, but..."

So why don't we? Because of the "but..."

Living for your passion is risky. Or so we are told.

Finally got around to purchasing Seth Godin's Linchpin - http://goo.gl/xcyS - and I have my copy next to me as I type. You only have to read the [probably one of the best written] contents page to see the essence of the book is about making yourself indispensible by going after your passion. Counter intuitive? Seth goes into why we won't let ourselves pursue our passions due to our 'lizard brain' and its aversion to risk.

Get it. Read it. In the meantime, I'm going to be doing some thinking about how to engage my passion where I am now as well as where I want to be.

Posted via web from rujmah's Dis-Collected Thoughts

Just Too Techy - Half Man/Half Geek

And on to Android...

Test from Bloggeroid

Rails play with Devise and Mongoid

4 lines for Platform 12

Victorian Star Wars Portraits: Star Wars, but with style

Gist: Ubuntu + RVM cheatsheet

Posterous Acquisition: End of an Era?

How MIT's Hybrid Bike Wheel Came to Life | Co.Design

test post for @bwanakijana

The Mast Brothers on Vimeo

Lance Armstrong on 'Quitting' - Best Cameo Ever

Star Wars Toy Painting by Robert Burden

The Essence of Gary Vay-ner-chuk: He gives a sh*take

Meet Flipboard for iPad

Jon Crosby on Rack Middleware and Cloudkit

Darren Rowse: How Preparing A Sermon is Similar to Writing Blog Posts

Amazon.co.uk Grocery Beta

Grocery--beta

Amazing Lego Mario model built using 3D scanner - Holy Kaw!

TOMS Shoes - A Pair of New Shoes is Given to a Child in Need With Every Pair Purchased

Ridley Scott on Life In A Day

Dan Pink's 'Drive' animated by RSA

Using Mongoid without Rails

Books I'm Determined to Read Before I Die from @brandonacox

Building an app walkthrough using (heroku, sinatra, mongodb and stuff) from @joelg87

What I achieved

@Heroku Evangelist - Dream job and Why isn't everyone an evangelist?

Heroku Evangelist