Aussiegeek.net

Gembox

2009-05-23T10:59:33+10:00

I'm always on the lookout for better ways of dealing with documentation, and I started with a bash alias to open the local gem's doc in my browser which was reasonably good However I still generally like jumping to the docs straight from my browser. I came across Gembox lately, a cool little sinatra app that does exactly what I want, but still required me to manually start it up. Like many I know, I use passenger on my local machine, so I don't have to actually manually start apps, and I thought why should gembox be any different. It required a small patch to setup config.ru properly, and is available from "http://github.com/aussiegeek/gembox/tree/master":http://github.com/aussiegeek/gembox/tree/master Just add it to your apache or nginx config (I set it up at gembox.local), and away you go

Three Usage

2009-02-28T18:34:55+10:00

Recently I bought a prepaid mobie modem, which is working out OK, except that the website you have to check your usage on involves putting a username & password (easily sorted with 1password), and then putting your PIN in on a page that requires you to click on numbers instead of typing. Very irritating! So I chucked together a quick scraper which retreives your usage information. Just 'sudo gem install three-usage', and check the "three-usage":http://three-usage.rubyforge.org site for more info

Shoulda be Remarkable

2008-12-14T22:08:58+10:00

I've been doing more and more TDD/BDD lately, trying out different toolsets, improving my workflow, you know the usual work cycle refactoring I like the rspec style tests you get "response.should be_valid", reads quite nicely to me, but still seems like too much typing. Found "shoulda":http://www.thoughtbot.com/projects/shoulda which I found was a lot closer to the mark. I was mucking around one night and googled "rspec shoulda", and came up with a handy tool... "Remarkable":http://www.nomedojogo.com/2008/11/18/shoulda-for-rspec-is-remarkable/. The only issue I have had is getitng my code to work with the shoulda style, but using the rspec style worked correctly such as: p(code). it {should require_attributes(:email)}

Upgrade Time

2008-08-10T16:59:58+10:00

!http://images.apple.com/au/macbookpro/images/overview_features_img20080226.jpg! I've been wanting to get a new mac for a bit now, finally ordered a new 15" MacBook Pro, along with a Linksys WAG160N to replace the seperate ADSL modem and wireless access point I've been using, and a Caribee Armour backpack from "Rushfaster":http://rushfaster.com.au/?pLoyaltyRef=23356 Also updated the code running this blog some more due to the rediculous amount of pharamacy spam I've been getting

Yes I have an iPhone

2008-07-28T17:05:56+10:00

Like half the country I have a 3G iPhone, got myself a black 16gig, came in on Friday and I'm starting to be used to having it with me all the time. I have joined "Brisbane Cocoaheads":http://www.brisbanecocoaheads.com so I can learn cocoa and iPhone dev

My Addressbook Setup

2008-07-15T14:50:00+10:00

I have gone to the trouble of Australianiseing my Address Book, so phones number actually appear in the correct format here in .au

iPhone

2008-07-13T07:40:58+10:00

Yes, like half the planet, I want the new 3G iPhone, but like a number of people, I missed out on actually getting it on Friday, so I'm on the waiting list, along with many other Aussies. I've ordered the Black 16GB, hopefully will be here soon

Passenger support for Vlad

2008-06-20T08:44:34+10:00

I've written a tiny module for Vlad to deploy to Passenger (mod_rails). It's available from "http://github.com/aussiegeek/vlad":http://github.com/aussiegeek/vlad To use it, just update your Rakefile where Vlad.load is called, and update it like so:


Vlad.load :app => 'phusion'

Rails 2.1 migration

2008-06-17T14:25:27+10:00

I've hacked together a simple script for converting timezones from the local timezone to utc for Rails 2.1

#!env ruby
class DummyTable
  def initialize(tablename)
    @@tablename=tablename
  end
  def self.method_missing(m, *args); end
  
  def self.datetime(name,options={})
    puts "execute \"UPDATE #{@@tablename} SET #{name}=CONVERT_TZ(#{name},'SYSTEM','+00:00');\""
  end
end

def create_table(tablename,options,*block)
  dummy_table=DummyTable.new(tablename)
  yield DummyTable
end

def add_index(name,fields,options={}); end

class ActiveRecord;end

class ActiveRecord::Schema
  def self.define(options={}, *block)
    yield
  end
end

require 'db/schema.rb'

Drop this file in the root of your project and just run it with plain Ruby. I wrote it this way so I could avoid ActiveRecord, it will spit out a bunch of execute commands ready for plugging in to a migration

New Position

2008-05-16T21:31:48+10:00

I'm moving on two greener pastures, and starting a new position on Monday. I'm doubling the team with another Mac based rails guy, I think I'll be right at home

Haml/Sass talk at Brisbane.rb

2008-05-14T09:00:36+10:00

I'll be giving an intro to Haml & Sass at the Brisbane Ruby & Rails Brigage on monday night, if anybody is interested

SSH keys on Debian/Ubuntu

2008-05-14T07:59:07+10:00

I seen today a twit that there was a "vulnerability":http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/2008/msg00152.html in the way that Debian & Ubuntu generate ssh keys. On the surface it would seem I'm ok because of old keys, there are numberous ways they could have become comprisied, so lucky me, time for a new set of ssh keys!

Github Badge

2008-05-06T09:18:58+10:00

My plan a few weeks ago was to write a badge for GitHub but I see Dr Nic has "beaten me to it":http://github.com/drnic/github-badges/tree/master The plan was to add his version to my site today but looks like some bugs involving prototype.js that I need to look at

mod_rails

2008-04-22T10:46:48+10:00

I've just migrated the server that runs my blog, and some internal apps to "mod_rails":http://www.modrails.org. It is extremely simple to deploy compared to apache+mongrel like I was using previously, and more memory effecient for the seldom used apps I keep on this server. I was warned of some potential gotchas in regards to rewrite rules, but no issues here, altough I am only using rewrites to redirect feed requests to FeedBurner. My config for this virtual host in all its gory detail:

      
      ServerName aussiegeek.net
      DocumentRoot /srv/www/alanblog/current/public
                        
      RewriteEngine On
                        
      RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedBurner
                        
      RewriteRule ^/posts\.xml$ http://feeds.feedburner.com/alanharper [R=301,L]

Yes, thats all. Good work guys!

Snippets for Sass Bundle

2008-03-23T01:10:41+10:00

I use Sass (& Haml), where its an option for producing sites, as I like the 'cleanliness' of it. I have been missing being able to use the snippets of the TextMate CSS bundle, so I have ported them over to a Sass bundle, with the syntax from "http://sporkmonger.com/2007/12/24/sass-textmate-bundle":http://sporkmonger.com/2007/12/24/sass-textmate-bundle. I have published it at "http://github.com/aussiegeek/ruby-sass-tmbundle/tree/from-css-bundle":http://github.com/aussiegeek/ruby-sass-tmbundle/tree/from-css-bundle

Home Directory

2008-03-20T10:17:44+10:00

I log on to a lot of various unix like machines (mainly Mac & Linux), and I have setup my environment for things such as autotest, vim, and my bash prompt in my own useful way. I used to store this in a private subversion repository, but I figured in the process of converting it to git, that I should share it. It is on "github":http://github.com/aussiegeek/homedir/tree/master for all to see. Recent addition was adding the current git branch to the bash prompt as mentioned on "Simplistic Complexity":http://www.simplisticcomplexity.com/2008/03/13/show-your-git-branch-name-in-your-prompt/

Git for Rails

2008-03-18T10:19:05+10:00

Last night I ran a presentation on using Git, and very briefly how to start a rails project in git for the Brisbane Ruby & Rails Brigade