To import, download and extract the zip file. Then inside of Prefernces, select the Studio dropdown on the left, choose Formatter and then on the right select the import profile option.

Login to SSH to edit remote MySQL config

First, we need to edit the mysql config file to accept and bind remote connections to your server. We do this by editing your my.conf file located on most unix systems at /etc/my.conf or /etc/mysql/my.conf. I’m going to hope and assume you know the basics to ssh into your remote server and vi or nano the conf file.

ssh root@yourserver.com
vi /etc/my.conf

Replace mysqld Defaults

You can either set this up as a new connection or override the default, in this case, I replaced the default connection with my own remote connection settings:

[mysqld]
bind-address    = 255.112.324.12
port            = 3306
user			= mysql
pid-file        = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
socket          = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
basedir         = /usr
datadir         = /var/lib/mysql
tmpdir          = /tmp
language        = /usr/share/mysql/English
# skip-networking
# skip-external-locking

After your done editing, just save and close the file and restart mysql services:

# Ubuntu
service mysql restart
# Other Unix
/sbin/init.d/mysql restart
# Test that your connection is allowed with telnet on your local machine:
telnet 255.112.324.12 3306

Granting Remote Access to MySQL Users

Now we’ve created our remote config for MySQL, we have to grant access to this server to other machines.

mysql -uroot -pMyPass
CREATE DATABASE mydb;
# Grant permission to root from any host:
GRANT ALL ON mydb.* TO root@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'MyPASSWORD';

Open Up MySQL Remote Ports

Now that our user has been granted access from any host, all thats left is to make sure our OS will allow connections to the default MySQL port

/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp --destination-port 3306 -j ACCEPT

And now we should be able to login to our server from our local machine:

mysql -h255.112.324.12 -uroot -pMyPASSWORD

Does this work for you? Comments or suggestions?

First on our “old” server lets use apt-get to dump a list of installed packages to a packages.txt file:

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall > packages.txt

Then on the new server, lets update Apt-Get and install from our file:

apt-get update
dpkg --set-selections < packages.txt
apt-get -u dselect-upgrade

That’s it!

First, edit .htaccess file to create a redirect that will send all user agents (bots and browsers) to feedburner, with the exception of Feedburner, which needs to be able to load our original content.

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
# Redirect feed to feedburner
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}      ^/?(feed.*|comments.*)        [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !^.*(FeedBurner|FeedValidator) [NC]
RewriteRule ^feed/?.*$          http://feeds.feedburner.com/techcocktail [L,NC,R=302]
RewriteRule ^comments/?.*$      http://feeds.feedburner.com/techcocktail [L,NC,R=302]
# Load Everything else like normal
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

# END WordPress

Then we can add the code in our theme functions.php to hijack and overwrite those old RSS links:

function custom_feed_link($output, $feed)
{
	$feed_url = 'http://feeds.feedburner.com/techcocktail';
 
	$feed_array = array(
		'rss' => $feed_url,
		'rss2' => $feed_url,
		'atom' => $feed_url,
		'rdf' => $feed_url,
		'comments_rss2' => ''
	);
	$feed_array[$feed] = $feed_url;
	$output = $feed_array[$feed];
 
	return $output;
}
add_filter('feed_link','custom_feed_link', 1, 2);

Lately a common topic of debate is native vs non-native in programming or applications. I’ve sat back and listened to a lot of arguments about native vs non, and both have valid points, but as programmers often do, I feel that most are missing the big picture.. For this case study, we’re going to use mobile as the platform, and discuss what it means to be native and identify why EVERYONE is right.

What does it really mean to be native?

If you were to ask this question to most mobile developers, many would agree that native means an application compiled in the main language used and interpreted by the operating system, eg: Objective C for the iPhone and Java for Android. Many developers that know these ‘native’ languages would argue that it is better to write native code instead of using frameworks or web views, which are often interpreted on the fly rather than completely compiled. Their statement would be valid, to an extent. There are better efficiencies in using low level languages, and while this argument holds its own against bare minimum hardware or complex apps, I think the thought process and argument itself seems hypocritical. Most of the developers that make arguments are overlooking a critical point.. their language of choice is still a higher level language. In fact if you want to break it down, the entire operating system is a higher level language just interpreting Objective-C or Java. Until you get down to the drivers and machine code that actually interface directly with hardware, everything else is a higher level, interpreted language.

So what’s the point?

Simply to call hypocrites out, and tell them to stop being critical. It’s okay if one developer is using pure Objective-C and taking more time to write extremely efficient code.. it’s also okay the developers are using Titanium or Web Views to build simple applications. Clearly there will always be advantages and disadvantages to both, but so long as we all recognize that, we can all build quality useful apps.

So what do you think? Native or Non-native and why? Lets get a fact dump going and see if we can really break this down further.

New Hires

Our Chosen peeps come first and are the most exciting news! Previous years, we were very hesitant to take on anyone full time (it’s a scary threshold to cross for a startup, as each person has a high impact on your company) and mainly worked with contractors. This year, however we’ve hired on a couple of great people full time, plus we’re still leveraging all of our wonderful contractors on large client projects.. getting the best of both worlds.

Winter King : Developer and DB Administrator

Winter (cool name, huh!) has been working with Chosen for over 6 months, and has been one of the most intelligent and hard working developers we’ve seen (and trust us, we know and meet a LOT of developers)! Winter is a strong PHP developer who loves Kohana, mysql, and mongo; bringing a lot of unique strengths to the company and our clients. Winter is now officially our partner, and will be growing into a role of CTO and helping the Boulder office grow over time.

Christina Tisdale : Seed Founder for Michigan

As of this Monday, Christina will officially be a full time Chosen partner, helping us with business growth and management. With a very extensive and diverse background in many roles, she has mastered many skills that will be vital to keeping the business well oiled and efficient. As of this summer, our founder Clay will be spending some months in Michigan attempting to start up a more official office and working with Christina to manage it long term.

Advertising and Web Services coming to Saint Johns, Michigan

Chosen is getting back to the grass roots in Michigan, in hopes that we can bring the thriving economy of Colorado to the loyal and hard working people of Michigan. We’re not saying that Colorado people lack these same qualities, but it is undeniable that there is plenty of tech related work in CO and a hurting economy and many talented, but unemployed people in Michigan. We hope to help foster the growth of technology in Michigan, offering jobs and services to the Lansing area. We’re a few months away from executing, but keep watch on twitter and Facebook

When you reflect on how technology has transformed different industries such as medical, financial, or social, one of the biggest components to these changes is software development. Yet despite the fact that software development is such a crucial component to other industries, it’s amazing to me how little the practices used to write code have improved over the years. IDE Software and a keyboard are really the only tools a programmer uses on a daily basis, yet somehow these tools have barely evolved in the last few decades. This post, we’re going to focus on Integrated Development Environments and save keyboard hardware for another time.

**Note** It’s important to recognize the differences between an IDE and a simple code editor. There are a lot of gray areas here and feedback/comments are welcome to contribute differences in opinions, but I’m going to identify the differences between IDE Software and Code Editors based on the web industry and what we use as a company. Some great Code Editors that I don’t feel fit into the role of IDE are Coda (Mac), Textmate (Mac), Notepad++ (PC), and Dreamweaver (Mac, PC).

Source Editor vs Application

IDE Software come in all shapes and sizes and one of my favorite approaches when working solo on a project, is to do development in linux directly using the server where the site will be hosted. I can save myself a lot of time and trouble by working directly with a source editor on the server via Shell. One of the oldest, most lightweight, and probably most perfected source editors for this is Vim. It originated with the first versions of Linux and integrates deeper than any other IDE to date due to the fact that the IDE is really just shell. You probably know a lot of developers using shell/ssh if you’re not using it yourself, and Vim operates on every unix based operating system. Being able to control a web service, operate a repo, and customize via plugins and settings.. Terminal and Vim do it all. It takes a long time, patience, and commitment to learn Vim, terminal commands, and commands for each system you use (such as git or svn) but some of the best web developers I know are using it, and take it from someone who hires.. I separate “okay” developers from “great” developers based upon whether they know terminal.

Integration is Key

Integrated Development Environment, it should be self-explanitory, but many developers disagree on what constitutes an environment and how deep integration goes. I think there are many applications in the wild that look like an IDE because they have entry level integration with files (such as project creation or FTP) or simple function lookups, but true IDE Software should include debugging tools, class/function memorization, language Doc/commenting support, etc. A well developed IDE should help you in every step of the programming process. If I were building a website on Kohana Framework and PHP, I would expect the IDE to setup my project locally and let me setup FTP and versioning with that project. The IDE should track my changes, help me make commits and synchronize between local and server. The IDE would then help me through bug tracking by having built in error reporting or integration with a platform that helps me track and resolve errors. A real IDE will not only show me core functions, but should parse through my code and help me reuse my own functions/classes. The way Komodo IDE or Aptana (built on Eclipse) do this is based on phpDocs.. so if my functions and classes are well commented and documented then I will have code completion and references on the fly. I can alt+click on function in my code and those IDE’s will take me to the file where the function is declared. Even if the IDE doesn’t contain this functionality out of the box (because we all want slimmer, faster applications) they should be available via plugins.

IDE for Windows, Mac, Linux

I had no issue finding a plethora of IDE’s and code editors developed by small groups and individuals, however a large scale Windows IDE, Mac IDE or Linux IDE are limited to really just a couple options: Komodo IDE, Aptana or Eclipse. I’ve used all of them and I personally prefer Aptana because it is a build of eclipse that has been customized to make web development easier. All of them are powerful, and far better for true programming than code editors, they all also offer a free version, which is a great way to try them out with no risk. There may be other IDE’s that work specifically for Windows or Mac, and I welcome you to mention your favorite IDE below.

There are many tutorials and scripts out there that will help you download/get ftp files from one server to another, but this is a slimmed down version that doesn’t have any unneeded fluff. There’s a linear approach to setting up FTP connection info, as well as a OOP example of performing server actions. If you’re familiar with OOP, this would be ideal to condense and refine into the FTP Class, otherwise, if you just want this to work without worrying about classes or scope, you can copy/paste the contents from the class into the linear script and it’ll get you where you need to go. Cloud servers can be a great way to host these heavy processes or bulky PHP scripts. Feel free to leave comments or questions.

<?php
# Linear connection info for connecting to FTP

# set up basic connection
$ftp_server = "ftp.yourserver.com";
$ftp_user    = "Username";
$ftp_pass	   = "Password";
 
$ftp_conn   = ftp_connect($ftp_server);
$ftp_login   = ftp_login($ftp_conn, $ftp_user, $ftp_pass);
 
ftp_pasv($ftp_conn, true);
 
# check connection
if ((!$ftp_conn) || (!$ftp_login)) {
	echo "FTP connection has failed!";
	echo "Attempted to connect to $ftp_server for user $ftp_user";
} else {
	echo "Connected to $ftp_server, for user $ftp_user";
}
 
echo "Currently in ".ftp_pwd($ftp_conn);
 
if (ftp_chdir($ftp_conn, "IDX_Version_5")) {
	echo "Current directory is now: " . ftp_pwd($ftp_conn) . "\n";
} else {
    echo "Couldn't change directory\n";
}
 
# Dump the data to the screen
var_dump(ftp_rawlist($ftp_conn, '.'));
 
# For the actual ftp actions, I use a FTP class I wrote which you can grab below
FTP::download(APPPATH.'data/idx', '.', $ftp_conn);
 
ftp_close($ftp_conn);
?>
 
<?php
# FTP Class for performing file downloads
class FTP {
 
   /**
     * Download() performs an automatic syncing of files and folders from a remote location
     * preserving folder and file names and structure
     *
     * @param	$local_dir: The directory to put the files, must be in app path and be writeable
     * @param 	$remote_dir: The directory to start traversing from. Use "." for root dir
     *
     * @return 	null
     */
    public static function download($local_dir, $remote_dir, $ftp_conn)
    {
 
	    if ($remote_dir != ".") {
	        if (ftp_chdir($ftp_conn, $remote_dir) == false) {
	            echo ("Change Dir Failed: $dir<br />\r\n");
	            return;
	        }
	        if (!(is_dir($dir)))
	            mkdir($dir);
	        chdir ($dir);
	    }
 
	    $contents = ftp_nlist($ftp_conn, ".");
	    foreach ($contents as $file) {
 
	        if ($file == '.' || $file == '..')
	            continue;
 
	        if (@ftp_chdir($ftp_conn, $file)) {
	            ftp_chdir ($ftp_conn, "..");
	            FTP::download($local_dir, $file, $ftp_conn);
	        }
	        else
	            ftp_get($ftp_conn, "$local_dir/$file", $file, FTP_BINARY);
	    }
 
	    ftp_chdir ($ftp_conn, "..");
	    chdir ("..");
	}
 
}
?>

Misconceptions about the Cloud

The “cloud” is a term that has grown very popular in the last couple years. Compare it to other trendy web terms such as “web 2.0″ or “html5″ which completely skew what technologies are behind the movement. The cloud is simply a way of describing data or applications that share space on a server. Some clouds are infinitely scalable and others have their limits, but if I were to define the cloud it would be a macro concept of “shared resources in a central location.” Thus arguments and dismissal due to “Google owns it” or “Microsoft can share your data” or “the police can subpoena your facebook data” are all completely irrelevant arguments to the cloud. They may hold their ground with specific applications and services, but that’s the extent of their bias.

Coding on the Cloud

With the open source project Bespin (aka Skywriter) I’ve completely changed the way that I code and work on a daily basis. Bespin is a cloud that can be installed anywhere, so I’m not putting my code anywhere public, and it allows me code on the web, with a browser, and is an all-in-one IDE. It takes the best of many technologies and wraps it into one: such as live collaborative coding (coda for mac), SCM which integrates with Git/SVN, and integrated terminal. Just the fact that all developers can code using the same IDE and same commands regardless of what OS they use is a plus in my books. So contrary to many arguments about the cloud being unsafe because of some corporate giant hosts your work.. this is one example of cloud computing that is still 100% in your control.

Docs on the Cloud

There’s support for and against storing documents on the cloud with services such as Microsoft Office Online or Google Docs. These services have made it really easy to create and share documents and have them at a central locations that can easily synchronize with the desktop storage, mobile access, and application access. I seen many businesses using Google Apps for email, docs, and calendar, and I myself fully testify on the behalf of these apps. However, there are some valid points to “google has access to all my documents” and the whole big brother mentality. To you, I say this.. “get a lawyer.” If you ever feel that Google or some other cloud based service has committed injustice or harm to you, then get a lawyer and do something about it. Otherwise, understand that yes, google is going to comply by the law if records are subpoena’d and yes, the CIA is probably watching you, and I’m almost positive the content of your docs are being used by google to evolve their own platforms. Get over it. Google is a multi-billion dollar company with a legal department the size of a small city. They work hard to cover their asses and make their users happy. Google docs is free, collaborative, and extremely convenient, and it beats the hell out of paying for a desktop application that you have to take care of updates, plugins, blah blah blah on.

Operating System on the Cloud

Without a doubt, Google ChromeOS is a really superb idea. Many people (like our parents or grandparents) primarily use computers for email and facebook, and I don’t know many of those generations that understand advanced techniques in applications like MS Excel or Photoshop, but I do know of many web equivalents that work great for them. Chrome OS simplifies the way we use technology, and it solves a problem for both simple web users to advanced web users like myself. There’s room for improvement, as there always is with a new OS, but Google is building a platform that can really change the way we use technology and internet long term.