KennethParnell.com - Home

Summer of Code 2007 Feed

2007-04-12T08:06:00Z

I now have a feed just for Summer of Code at http://feeds.feedburner.com/soc2007.

Summer of Code 2007

2007-04-12T07:47:00Z

My application to work on the Google Summer of Code has been accepted. I am going to be working on the WebHttpBinding for the Mono Project.

I will be posting updates on my progress as I go along. You can view those updates here

Imagine Cup

2007-03-07T07:00:00Z

I just found out that I have been selected to compete at the regional semi-finals for the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2007

The competition involves using .Net and C# to solve various problems in order to get points. The top people at each level advance to the next level. You can read the full rules here

The e-mail I just received says:

You will all need to bring your laptops to the semi final event.

I wonder if I will be the only person there with a Mac :-)

Up And Running On Mephisto

2006-12-29T03:10:00Z

I’m finally up and running on Mephisto and new theme is in the works, as well as more posts.

Can Your Programming Language Do This?

2006-08-06T00:31:00Z

Yes, Ruby can do this

But seeing as I am a fan of Object Oriented programming. (Ruby in particular)

I would change:

    function map(fn, a)
    {
         for (i = 0; i < a.length; i++)
         {
             a[i] = fn(a[i]);
         }
     }

to:

    Array.prototype.map = function( fn ){
        result = new Array();
        for ( var i = 0; i < this.length; i++ ){
            result[i] = fn(this[i]);
        }
        return result;
    }

now you can do:

    var a = [1,2,3];
    a.map( function(num){return num*2;} );
    a.map( alert );

Using Gmail to Get Things Done

2006-07-26T18:25:05Z

Check out this article on how to use a gmail account as a journal/to-do list.

http://www.thefantasticos.com/andrew/index.php?p=8

RoR at Brinstorm

2006-07-26T08:43:55Z

Finally Brainstorm has sipped the Rails Kool-Aid. More to come soon.

Brainstorm Web Design

2006-07-09T07:27:57Z

I just started doing some work with Brainstorm this past week. I look forward to pointing you to some of the projects that we work on together in the future.

The Marks of Manhood

2006-06-22T21:43:48Z

I just found a great article on what it means to be a man by Biblical definition. Here is an excerpt:

When does a boy become a man? The answer to this must go far beyond biology and chronological age. As defined in the Bible, manhood is a functional reality, demonstrated in a man’s fulfillment of responsibility and leadership. With this in mind, let me suggest thirteen marks of biblical manhood. The achievement of these vital qualities marks the emergence of a man who will demonstrate true biblical masculinity.

You can read the rest of the article at http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001093.cfm

Flock Browser

2006-06-22T17:15:33Z

I just started playing with the Flock Browser. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Rails Day '06

2006-06-17T19:43:58Z

After more than 24 hours with now sleep Rails Day ‘06 has come to an end for our team. You can check out our stats at http://spectate.railsday2006.com/teams/95 , and you will be able to view the finished product @ SliceOfSites.com some time later this week.

I’ll be posting more about the project in the future as we continue to maintain it, but in the mean time you can check out my team-mates sites.

Ryan Heneise and Mark Priestap

lighttpd.conf

2006-06-06T23:03:47Z

I use lighttpd for development on my box. I am currently working with Ruby on Rails and PHP

For PHP I am using Code Igniter so the rewrite rule for the php subdomain reflects this. To see my configuration keep reading…

server.modules = (
                  "mod_rewrite",
                  "mod_access",
                  "mod_fastcgi",
                  "mod_accesslog",
                  "mod_compress",
                  "mod_expire" 
                 )

server.document-root = "/Users/kenny/Sites/standard/" 

server.port = 80

server.username  = "www" 
server.groupname = "www" 

mimetype.assign = (  
  ".css"        =>  "text/css",
  ".gif"        =>  "image/gif",
  ".htm"        =>  "text/html",
  ".html"       =>  "text/html",
  ".xml"        =>  "text/xml",
  ".jpeg"       =>  "image/jpeg",
  ".jpg"        =>  "image/jpeg",
  ".js"         =>  "text/javascript",
  ".png"        =>  "image/png",
  ".swf"        =>  "application/x-shockwave-flash",
  ".txt"        =>  "text/plain" 
)

compress.filetype = ("text/plain",
                     "text/html",
                     "text/css",
                     "text/javascript" 
                     )

static-file.exclude-extensions = ( ".fcgi", ".php", ".rb", "~", ".inc" )
index-file.names = ( "index.html", "index.htm", "index.php" )

# Making sure file uploads above 64k always work when using IE or Safari
# For more information, see http://trac.lighttpd.net/trac/ticket/360
$HTTP["useragent"] =~ "^(.*MSIE.*)|(.*AppleWebKit.*)$" {
  server.max-keep-alive-requests = 0
}

$HTTP["host"] == "php.localhost" {
   server.document-root = "/Users/kenny/Sites/php/" 
   url.rewrite = ( "^/$" => "index.php", "^([^.]+)$" => "index.php/$1" )
   fastcgi.server = ( ".php" => ((
                        "bin-path"  => "/usr/local/bin/php",
                        "socket"    => "/tmp/php.socket",
                        "max-procs" => 2,
                        "bin-environment" => (
                           "PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN"     => "16",
                           "PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS" => "10000" 
                        ),
                        "bin-copy-environment" => (
                           "PATH", "SHELL", "USER" 
                        ),
                        "broken-scriptfilename" => "enable" 
                     )))
}

$HTTP["host"] == "rails.localhost" {
  server.document-root = "/Users/kenny/Sites/rails/public" 
  server.indexfiles = ( "index.html" )
  server.error-handler-404 = "/dispatch.fcgi" 
  url.rewrite = ( "^/$" => "index.html", "^([^.]+)$" => "$1.html" )
  compress.cache-dir = "/Users/kenny/Sites/rails/tmp/cache" 
  expire.url =   ("/favicon.ico"    => "access 3 days",
                  "/images/"        => "access 3 days",
                  "/stylesheets/"   => "access 3 days",
                  "/javascripts/"   => "access 3 days" 
                 )

  # rails stuff
  #### fastcgi module
  fastcgi.server = (
    ".fcgi" => (
      "rails" => (
        "socket" => "/tmp/rails.socket",
        "bin-path" => "/Users/kenny/Sites/rails/public/dispatch.fcgi",
        "min-procs" => 1,
        "max_procs" => 2
      )
    )
  )
}

Rails rcov Rake Task

2006-05-22T22:24:00Z

I wrote a rake task for running rcov on my Rails apps and I figured someone else might find it usefull.

desc "Run rcov on current app"
task :rcov do
  test_dir    = "#{RAILS_ROOT}/test"
  dirs        = [ "#{test_dir}/functional/*.rb",
                  "#{test_dir}/integration/*.rb",
                  "#{test_dir}/unit/*.rb"]
  command = "rcov -o #{test_dir}/coverage"
  dirs.each do |dir|
    command += " #{dir}" unless Dir[dir].empty?
  end
  system command
end

Copying a gem into vendor without sudo access

2006-05-04T04:09:00Z

Copying a gem into vendor without sudo access: “

The problem: gem unpack requires the gem to be installed before you can use it.

The solution:

Step 1.

Install the gem locally: gem install redcloth -i ~/tmp/

Step 2.

Use the GEM_HOME environment variable to tell gem where your gem library is: GEM_HOME=~/tmp/ gem unpack redcloth

Step 3.

Copy the extracted gem into your applications /vendor directory: cp redcloth-3.0.3 ../rails/vendor -R

“

(Via David’s Blog of DOOM.)

Apple Goes Head-to-Head With Windows In New Ads

2006-05-01T20:39:00Z

Apple Goes Head-to-Head With Windows In New Ads: “It’s been a long time since Apple has so directly targeted the competition, or trumpeted the Mac in general. Thankfully the wait is over! In two ads that aired this evening, the platforms are represented by a person—the suit-wearing guy (PC) and the cool designer-looking guy (Mac). The first ad discusses the Mac’s ‘immunity’ to viruses, while the second more-safely broaches the media’s love for our OS of choice. Personally? I think they’re pretty funny.”

(Via MacSlash.)