Fightinjoe: Blogs

Hanna: Movie Review

2011-04-20T22:21:11-08:00

Change is accelerating. Ask any meteorologist, any American Idol contestant, any African dictator, any internet meme, and they will all concur. The world is changing faster than ever before.

This truth comes slowly to Hollywood, however, which prefers to minimize risk by fighting change with a growing arsenal of over 20 James Bond sequels, Star Wars prequels, abundant remakes, and recently adaptations of books, comics, and graphic novels. Try as they might, change is unavoidable, and never clearer or more distinct than when themes emerge annually to be celebrated at the Academy Awards. From 2008 to 2010, a very traditional theme of artistic films largely grounded by good storytelling dominated the nominees. In the2008 Academy Awards, Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, and No Country for Old Men all were driven by strong stories. The 2009 Academy Awards followed suit with Benjamin Button, Frost / Nixon, Milk, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire. The 2010 Academy Awards tried to reward similar films such as Avatar, District 9, Precious, Inglorious Basterds, and The Blind Side. But change would not be denied, and arrived with The Hurt Locker as its vanguard.

Hurt Locker was less a story and more a punch in the gut. Seen on the big screen, no movie has ever made me as tense, nervous, muscle achingly exhausted, and enthralled. Hurt Locker was rewarded Best Picture, and rightfully so, for it went further even than Avatar's 3D effects to shift the movie making trend from classic storytelling to an emotional tapestry.

Though this new emotional trend didn't dominate the 2011 Academy Awards nominees, movies that placed emotion over story were very well represented. Black Swan won many accolades, as did Biutiful, both through intricately emotional yet meandering stories. Other movies had simpler story lines but no less emotion; see Blue Velvet and 127 Hours. In comparison to the entertaining but not so defiant competition, these films display a solution to the malaise in traditional Hollywood storytelling.

Is it a trend, however, if it stops with Oscar season? The biggest disappointment of 2011 has been the lack of anything compelling. All emoting and alternative movies have instead been replaced a new trend: bad Natalie Portman movies. No Strings Attached, Your Highness, and soon Thor (which where, according to IMDB, it thankfully ends). All of which is to say I was very excited to see last year's trend rejuvenated and re-imagined by the new movie, Hanna.

Hanna is a reunion for the director, Joe Wright, and lead actress, Saoirse Ronan, who worked together on Atonement (he directed, she played Briony Tallis). The film's story is simple enough. An ex-spy father raises his daughter in the woods in the way of the assassin in preparation for seeking revenge on an old accomplice. The beauty isn't in the skeletal story, but in the way it is fleshed out with an incredible and rich sensory experiences and animated with crisp and decisive directing.

Hanna shows us what it is like to experience the world for the first time, and how hard it can be to find a pure signal amongst the noise of life. Wright holds the movie tightly in tune to the dancing frequency of fast paced action, well timed humor, diverse locales, and a pinch of sentiment. His efforts are reinforced by strong cinematography which isn't afraid of a long shot, and music by The Chemical Brothers. Together, this binds us with the eponymous Hanna, with whom we see nature, hear music, taste culture, make friends, and experience life again for the first time.

Hanna is full of colors, sounds, and feelings, but in a precise and distinct way that improves on last year's trend which at times was an overwhelming and confusing emotional blitz. It's a funny, fearful, and fresh fantasy that has me optimistic that art and entertainment don't have to be mutually exclusive, and is a trend well worth following.

Faithless in Facebook

2011-01-16T20:34:10-08:00

There are two reasons to be bearish on Facebook's social monopoly in the future: the evolution of social, and the motivation to pursue it.

The predominant business case for the Internet has been to identify a real world problem and apply a scalable solution. Portals scaled the content creation and consumption pipeline. Search scaled the breadth and speed of finding results. eBay scaled classifieds, Yelp scaled local finding and reviewing, Amazon scaled shopping, and AOL scaled failure. Facebook has grown to it's current size by scaling social interactions and relationships.

The difference with Facebook and the other examples, however, is that they scale atomic, finite items - news stories, products, or web pages. The social ecosystem, however, is diverse, amorphous, and nuanced. Facebook deals with this by creating facsimiles of social interactions that it can scale: friend lists, wall posts, photos, events, messages, etc. Facebook chose the right facsimiles to scale, which is one reason it succeeded where others failed. But these facsimiles still pale in comparison to the breadth and depth provided by real world social interactions and relationships.

This is why "social" is still largely an unsolved problem online. Whereas online search is relatively stable, with a high level of satisfaction and a well established status quo, the growth and re-definition of online socialization is accelerating. Facebook will definitely continue to evolve, but at best their evolution mirrors online social growth; it doesn't define it. Thus, there continues to be tremendous opportunity for competition to create new online social paradigms, both for entrenched companies like Google as well as new startups like Instagram.

Competition alone isn't enough reason to question Facebook's future. What is, however, is the conflict of interest Facebook has between doing what's best for their users and doing what's best for their advertisers. Facebook makes the bulk of it's money through advertising. The better advertising targets customers, the more valuable it becomes. Thus, the more liberal Facebook's privacy policy, the more money they make.

Money isn't necessarily what is motivating Facebook's decisions (for deeper insight, the New Yorker's interview with Mark Zuckerberg is insightful). However, they do display a definite trend towards less privacy. The EFF has a timeline of the Facebook Privacy Policy on their site, though it hasn't yet updated to include the phone and address sharing recently added to the User Graph API. This change will probably go unnoticed by many Facebook users. Not because privacy isn't an important issue, but because it's largely ignored as harmless until it's abused.. And while it's being ignored, Facebook continues to erode the privacy of their users.

Regardless of the motivation, there's little evidence that the privacy changes are in the user's best interest, or the result of user demand. And herein lies the problem. The future of the online social ecosystem will be defined by user experience, not advertiser experience. Facebook's may currently dominate the online social realm, but given their current behavior, right or wrong, they're on the wrong trajectory for defining a more robust online social ecosystem.

Who wins the Android vs. iOS flame war?

2011-01-09T16:34:48-08:00

Internet flame wars are not won or lost; they're just forgotten. They disappear because the core premise is never resolved. Instead, it's devalued. Think of who won the cowboy vs. ninja vs. pirate flame: zombies (narrowly beating out vampires).

Before the flame dies down, however, each new piece of evidence and supporting argument only makes the flame burn hotter. For example, news of the number of Android devices outnumbering the number of iPhones doesn't pacify but emboldens both factions. Some will claim this is proof of Android winning. Others will retaliate "don't forget to count ALL iOS devices!"

This argument can never be settled, because Apple and Google (and transitively iOS and Android) define success differently. The proof is in the mission statements for both companies, and how this leads them to define success.

Though not officially advertised as their mission statement, this bit of text adorns most all Apple press releases: Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings. (For a longer expose, watch Steve Job's keynote regarding Apple's "Digital Hub" strategy.)

Google is very forward about their mission statement: Google’s mission is to organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful. (I'm more optimistic that this drives their decisions than their dependency on ad revenue, as suggested by others. Of course, I'm biased.)

Historically, these mission statements haven't overlapped. In the PC world, they've actually worked symbiotically. A better "personal computing experience" encourages computing adoption, which leads to more information being digitized. This digital information being "accessible and useful" makes computing access more meaningful and increasingly necessary.

Mobile computing paradigms are largely unestablished compared to PCs. Apple and Google, in pursuit of their mission statements, are both incentivized to define the mobile frontier. Apple, in pursuing the best experience, wants rigid and sometimes closed control over the mobile experience. A closed ecosystem is a direct threat to Google's mission - how can all the world's information be universally accessible and useful if mobile is even partially closed?

Google, in pursuit of information access, wants mobile to be open (which incidentally is one of the loudest, though not necessarily better, arguments in favor of Android). Google's creation of Android was done to ensure openness, but the borrowing of many iPhone interface paradigms, as well Android devices competing against the iPhone, is a direct thread to Apple.

Both companies are competing in the same space, thus the advent of the flame war. But success looks different to both companies. Neither one will win nor lose, but both will succeed. Google's Android ubiquity will make the whole mobile landscape more open. Apple and iOS success will continue to define the best mobile experience. So who ultimately wins the Android vs. iOS flame war? The consumer. Or, if my calculations are correct, zombies.

Rules for Career Building

2010-12-01T20:15:49-08:00

My father's generation built careers vertically. Today, they're built in multi-dimensions.

Accordingly, these career defining questions have become obsolete:

1) What do you want to be when you grow up?

2) Where do you want to be in ten years?

3) What are your passions?

4) What makes you happy?

More often than not, their answers are multi-faceted, esoteric, and only obfuscate the future. Instead, I propose one question and five rules by which modern careers should be crafted. The single question provides a career vector that facilitates evaluation of career crossroads. The question helps you choose the right turns. The rules help you stay on track. The question:

How do you define success?

And the rules:

1) Success is relative. Use your definition of success to evaluate your career and future opportunities. Move in the direction of more and greater success.

2) No work problem will be harder than people problems. Working positively with others is the most valuable skill in the workplace.

3) Talking aloud about your career is positive. Managerial one-on-ones and interviews provide a good forum for this.

4) Regrets distract from growth. As your career grows, make sure to leave behind no regrets.

5) Personal relationships are invaluable. Keep in touch with people you value and look up to, and make it a point to meet with face to face.

I would say it's a shame that it's taken 9 years to distill this information, but I find that I've been following these tenants subliminally. It's just taken some time to put my behavior into words.

iPhone App

2010-10-14T13:07:18-08:00

Aaron Wheeler App

A simple and easy way to keep up-to-date and in-touch.

Features

Up-to-date contact information
Import contact details to Contacts
Aggregated online activity
Share app via SMS or Email
And much more!

Download

This app is pending approval in the App Store.

Stop-over in San Francisco

2010-01-02T12:14:03-08:00

San Francisco is the most stereotyped city in America. To figure out how European, gay, left-wing, hi-tech, earthquake-prone, and geologically perverse the city, you'll have to visit yourself!

Arriving and getting around San Francisco

There are three airports that service the Bay Area: Oakland (OAK), San Jose (SJC), and San Francisco (SFO), and Southwest services all three. SFO is the most convenient to the city - the BART (subway) runs to the airport every 30 minutes and will deliver you in the heart of the city in about 45 minutes. There are busses from OAK to a BART terminal, but it's on the east side of the bay and will take 1:30 on public transportation. SJC is impossible by public transportation. Driving times for SFO, OAK, and SJC are about 25 minutes, 35 minutes, and 60 minutes respectively, with times potentially doubling during rush hour traffic.

Driving in San Francisco sucks. Parking is impossible to find, and costs and arm and a leg when you do find it. Busses are very convenient, and the city isn't that bad to walk as long as you know which hilly streets to avoid. There are busses and trollies in San Francisco (MUNI, $2 for a 2 hour transfer anywhere in the city). The BART is best for getting into and out of the city. There are a few stops underneath Mission St. heading north, then under Market St. heading east out of the city to the east bay.

Busses have bicycle racks, which makes bicycling a good way to get around San Francisco. Cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge also isn't too hard, which can be a fun way to get out of the city.

The city

San Francisco is made up of many small neighborhoods which all have their own unique feel. If you divide San Francisco geographically into three columns (coast - edge of Golden Gate Park - Van Ness St. - bay), then the west-most part of SF is very residential. The center column, especially from Divisadero to Van Ness, is where much of San Francisco's unique flavor comes from. The eastern block is mostly downtown and post-industrial. You can't go wrong if you stick to streets around Van Ness and Mission St. Here are a few neighborhoods in San Francisco that are worth checking out.

The Marina

On the northern tip of San Francisco is the Marina. The food is good, the beach is near, and the wine bars are abundant. It's great for a day when it's sunny and the breeze isn't too strong. Chestnut St. runs east-west through the Marina, and it's where you want to stay if you're looking to spend money or eat food. It's got a great old-neighborhood feel, with the butcher and baker on the corner, but conveniently has an Apple Store in the middle of it so that you can check your email on your way to a wine sampling or a movie at a local theatre.

When you've had enough commercialism, head north to the beach and walk west towards Chrissy Field. A long walk on the beach can be nice to exercise the legs, or a visit to the Exploratorium to exercise the mind.

For a full day in the Marina, spend your morning having a late breakfast on Chestnut street, then grabbing sandwiches at Blue Barn for a picnic at Ft. Mason (or whatever the name is of the fort that is just below the Golden Gate Bridge). On the walk back, stop by the Yoda fountain on the Lucasarts campus in the Presido, then spend the afternoon at the Exploratorium. Finish with dinner at A16, the best italian in the city, with an awesome wine selection to boot.

Golden Gate Park

Though it's nowhere near Golden Gate Bridge, the park is equally beautiful, especially on weekends when JFK Dr. is closed to motor vehicles. A bicycle is a great way to get around the park. You'll want to have a bus help you get there, however.

The de Young art museum gets many good shows throughout the year and is good for spending 90 minutes to 2 hours at. The Academy of Science is a wonderful natural history museum with a living roof and indoor tropical rain forest. It's easy to spend three hours there, especially on Thursday nights at the beginning of the month when the museum is open late for adults (alcohol is served).

Museums are good indoor activities. Outdoors, the ground between the two museums is nice, as is the neighboring Japanese Tea Garden. For a full day adventure, plan on seeing at least one of the museums, picnicking outside, then going to the Tea Garden for some nature photography. Once done, hop on your bicycle and head west to the northwest corner and check out the Dutch windmill and tulip garden. Finish the day combing the beach. First head south, then back north along the beach. On the north end up the hill are a few seaside restaurants that are good for dining.

The Mission / Castro

The Castro is San Francisco's gay district. There is a huge gay pride flag in the middle of the neighborhood right next to the Castro theatre. But other than a lot of mens fashion stores, most of the Castro is residential and up on a hill. It's a good place to walk around, watch the people, and enjoy the vibe. Starting a day here can be nice, as all the walking the rest of the day is downhill!

Walking down from the Castro, Mission Dolores Park has a great view of the city that is far enough removed from downtown to preserve it's quaint feeling. In the summer there is a soapbox derby that runs down Dolores St. On any sunny day, half of the city will be sunbathing in the park.

As you walk east, the demographic turns from gay to hipster to hispanic to blue collar. Valencia Street has many art galleries that cater to San Francisco's starving artist population, with some very good art to be found. Two blocks to the east along Mission St. the hispanic community has taken over, which means lots of good food and a very vibrant street culture. As you get to Van Ness St., San Francisco's industrial past starts to become apparent. Protero Hill can be nice and quaint, but for the most part there isn't anything of interest east of South Van Ness.

Any day spent walking up and down Valencia and Mission St. always feels fulfilling. Check out the map below for a walking tour suggestion.

Shopping

If you want to shop, there are a few places that are a must. Haight-Ashbury (along Haight St.) is roughly 10 blocks of delicious storefronts with a heavy community influence, sometimes hippie, sometimes, hipster, sometimes hispanic, but always funky and fresh. Start on the western side of Haight St. just after the end of Golden Gate park and walk east. This is upper Haight, which leads into Lower Haight after a brief residential intermission.

Walking east through Haight-Ashbury will lead you to the southern tip of Hayes Valley. Walk north to Hayes St., especially around the center of the neighborhood by Octavia St. This neighborhood is quite tiny, but very good for window shopping as well as snacking.

Finish up your shopping tour by hitting Union Square where all the big name stores and brands are. Just watch out for the mob of people. Taking the bus here is easier than walking, though walking along Market St. can be interesting, as you'll have to run the gauntlet of porn emporiums and run down buildings before getting to Union Square.

The Water

If you like the water, or being near it, there are a few things that will help you indulge. Alcatraz is a tourist destination, but far from a tourist trap. The Parks Service runs it well and it has an interesting and rich history that is well preserved. You can get to Alcatraz by departing from just east of Pier 39, which is a true tourist trap, but one worth visiting at least once.

If you want to get out of the city, you can rent bicycles around Pier 39 and then head out to the Golden Gate Bridge. Cross the bridge and work your way up the eastern coast to Sausalito, a small town great for docking your yacht at. You can also catch the best fish and chips in the area here. There are ferries that depart on a regular basis that will take you from Sausalito back to around Pier 39.

The Map

Though far from complete, here is a map of the areas with different highlights marked to give a sense of the city.

Visiting Vancouver

2009-07-21T06:30:24-08:00

Heading up to Vancouver? Here’s a broad starting point. If you prefer a narrow starting point, I’ve also got a few notes for reference.

Arriving and getting around Vancouver

Vancouver has a great bus system. The busses are quiet and clean, the drivers are courteous, and you can get just about anywhere. The bus from the airport heads strait up Granville Street right into the city and takes 30 – 45 minutes. You can pre-purchase bus tickets at most convenience stores, or when you board the bus. The bus will either scan your ticket or issue you one (if you pay with cash). Hold onto it – it will work as your transfer for as long as it’s valid. There are different fare zones, but unless you head out east you don’t have to worry about them.

There is also the Sky Train, an elevated rail system that runs east-west from the city out to Burnaby, though it’s being extended south to the airport for the 2010 Olympics.

Vancouver is also very bike-able. The town is small enough that it never takes long to get anywhere. Unless you’re headed out to UBC, Vancouver isn’t too hilly, either. Stay along the coast if you want flat terrain.

Downtown

Downtown Vancouver is a peninsula that sticks out from the main land up towards North Vancouver, and is home to countless sky-scraping condominiums and more than 50,000 residents. On the northern tip is Stanley Park.

The skyline of downtown Vancouver is very impressive, but what always shocked me was how much was dedicated to living and how little was dedicated to business. I’ve no idea where all of the people work, especially since the service industry is the largest employer downtown.

Downtown has pockets of excitement. Davie Street runs just inland and is the gay district of Vancouver. Check out Stepho’s for abundant and affordable Greek food, and hang out along the beach on English Bay to people watch. The southern bit is called Yale Town and is where the yuppies and trophy wives hang out. Most anywhere on Hamilton St. is good to eat, and the waterfront is a great place to catch a water taxi to Granville Island. Gastown is the oldest part of Vancouver and has some nice quaint shops in-between the tourist traps. Steamworks Brew Pub has interesting seasonal brews and is good for a pint or two. Heading east of Gastown gets you into the raw inner city of Hastings Street. Canadians say it’s dangerous there, but most people will leave you alone. On the east side of Hastings is China Town, but most of Vancouver’s Chinese population lives south of the city in Richmond, so China Town is a little under-whelming.

During a sunny day, one of the best things to do downtown is to rent bicycles and ride around Stanley Park. It’s an hour – 90 minute ride around the route that hugs the coast, and there are also paths going into the middle of the park. It’s got great views of everything and is a great way to escape the city. There are plenty of places to rent bikes in the West End. If you’ve got the time, you can ride around the whole downtown peninsula, which is also well worth it.

If you prefer to walk, start out at the public library on Robson and Hamilton and then walk northwest on Georgia. The Vancouver Art Gallery is nice, especially if they’ve got a local artist’s show going on, and then after the Art Gallery Georgia St. is good for window shopping.

At nighttime, all the action is on Granville St. If you like music, the Commodore is an awesome venue and can accommodate maybe 750 – 1000 people. There are smaller holes-in-the-wall that also have a lot of class. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but Richards on Richards is one of the best venues in the city if good music is playing.

South of Downtown

If you do make it out of downtown, you’ll enter Kitsilano first. To live in Kitsilano, I believe there is actually a requirement that you wear yoga pants (Lulu Lemon is the preferred local brand) or are pushing a baby stroller. To visit, though anyone can come. The best parts of “Kits” are along the water: Kitsilano Beach on the east end, and Jericho Beach on the western end. By bicycle, take the Burrard St. Bridge to get to Kits and then ride along the waterfront. There are plenty of busses to take, too.

If you make it all the way west and make it up the hill, you’ll hit the University of British Columbia (UBC). They’ve got a nice rose garden, and tucked away on the western end is a few hundred stairs that take you down to Wreck Beach, the only nude beach in Vancouver. Be forewarned – only the people you don’t want to see naked actually go nude on this beach.

There isn’t much to catch your interest east of Kits except for Granville Island. It’s another tourist trip, but is more palatable as it’s populated by local artists, a farmers market, and half of the seagulls that live in the city. In the evening there are theatres that have shows on Granville Island, and there’s usually always something artsy going on.

If you do head further south on Granville St., VanDusen Botanical Garden is nice, especially in the evenings during the winter holiday season when it’s all lit up.

North Vancouver

If you seek more nature than you can get at Stanley Park, then head north. There are quite a few places to get out and enjoy the outdoors. Grouse Mountain is one popular destination, and there are two ways to the top. There is a gondola, which is picturesque, but expensive. And there is the Grouse Grind. It takes at least an hour of non-stop climbing to get to the top of the 1800 ft. climb. Make sure to take water if you go. The locals call it Nature’s Stairmaster, but also works as Nature’s Matchmaker; if you’re single, it’s a great place to meet other hot and sweaty singles. The top of Grouse has skiing in the winter (when there’s snow), two great restaurants (get there early to get a good seat), a spectacular view of the city (and a great but distant view of the fireworks if you’re there during the Festival of Lights), and a variety of outdoor activities for families. One way tickets on the gondola can be purchased for those who climb to the top.

Capilano Suspension Bridge can be fun as well. They also have a “treetop adventure” which makes you feel like an Ewok, but it’s pricy to get in. For a similar outdoors romp, Lynn Valley is free, less crowded, and just as beautiful. But there are no Ewoks. To really get away from things, head north from the city, then east to Deep Cove. This quaint town has great bed and breakfasts and is also good for kayaking.

And if you go north and want to keep going, the Sea to Sky highway to Whistler is a gorgeous drive, and Whistler is a fun and very self-explanatory town both in the summer and winter.

When to go, where to stay

Vancouver summers are the best in the world. They are mild, with temps in the high 70s during the day and 50s at night. There is always a nice breeze from the ocean which keeps the bugs away, and the sun doesn’t set until 10pm which makes the days really long. August is typically the best month, and summer doesn’t usually last more than 8 weeks. May and June are typically wet, as are January and February. Winters have been freakish the past few years, but they typically are a cold form of mild with thick fogs and temperatures above freezing.

Staying downtown anywhere close to Burrard St. or Georgia St. is a safe bet. If you stay outside of downtown, it will probably be a bed and breakfast. You don’t need a car to get around unless you have places to visit that the bus doesn’t go to frequently. Before you go, check out City of Glass by Douglas Coupland. It’s the book he put together as a travel guide for his friends who kept coming to visit him in the city.

Free iPhone App Ideas

2009-04-06T06:47:36-08:00

Free iPhone App ideas:

iScale – tells a person’s weight by having him place the iPhone on the ground and standing on it.

tempSafe – protect your baby by checking the temperature of the bathwater by submersing the iPhone the tub. Paid version also works as an oven meat thermometer.

breath-I-lizer – place iPhone into each alcoholic drink you order. The app records each drink, the time, and the alcohol content of the drink. Paired with iScale, the app determines your blood alcohol level and whether it’s safe for you to drive or not.

accu-weather – leave the iPhone outside and it reports if it is precipitating or not.

iGrate – cheese-grating app. Displays a picture of a cheese grater with instructions on how to grate cheese against the microphone. Not to be used as a razor or fingernail clipper or callus file or emory board.

Merb caching DataMapper

2009-01-05T03:16:29-08:00

Strange the evolution of Merb: copy what Rails does; reinvent how Rails does it; assimilate into Rails. Hopefully Rails will become as easy to hack as Merb is currently.

Case in point: Merb::Cache. It’s first iteration was nearly a direct clone of Rails caching, complete with fragment, action, and page caching. Then the core team had to get clever and reinvent the wheel. While a little half baked, it provides a foundation for constructing almost any type of cache, and is ripe for documentation!

There are several hurdles to get over to start using Merb::Cache:

It isn’t intuitive. Or at least not for someone who is used to the Rails way. Fortunately, all of it doesn’t have to make sense in order be useful.
It doesn’t play well with DataMapper. Or rather DataMapper doesn’t play nice, unless dm-core edge is used.
It doesn’t work out of the box. The file cache, in particular, doesn’t do anything to serialize what is being cached, and no strategy is provided to do the work.

Preparation:

Working backwards, these hurdles are easy to clear. First, create a new strategy to serialize what is being cached. Using the gzip_store as a model, it’s easy to create a marshal_store that uses Marshal.dump and Marshal.load to serialize and deserialize any data that is being cached. This file can be placed in the lib folder for safe-keeping.

Setup:

Merb::Cache should be included in the Merb stack. If not, make sure that there is a dependency set for merb-cache. At the same time, add a dependency for dm-serializer (from dm-more); this is required to serialize DataMapper objects.

[code] # somewhere in the init.rb or dependencies.rb file dependency merb-cache dependency dm-serializer [/code]

It is easiest to configure Merb::Cache in an after_app_loads block in each environment file, since the caching schemes across environments will differ. Production will use a file cache store, while the other environments will use an adhoc store which does nothing.

[code] # in config/environments/production.rb Merb::BootLoader.after_app_loads do require 'lib/marshal_store' Merb::Cache.setup do # FYI, you can check whether a cache store has been setup with # Merb::Cache.stores.has_key?(:file_cache) register(:base_cache, Merb::Cache::FileStore, :dir => "tmp") register(:file_cache, Merb::Cache::MarshalStore[:base_cache]) end end [/code]

[code] Merb::BootLoader.after_app_loads do Merb::Cache.setup do register(:file_cache, Merb::Cache::AdhocStore.new) end end [/code]

Caching can now easily be used wherever needed:

[code] # for example, in a controller or model cache = Merb::Cache[:file_cache] keys = ['users',params] if cache.exists?( *keys ) @users = cache.read( *keys ) else cache.write( keys.first, @users = User.all, keys.last ) end [/code]

NOTE: the cache will have to be expired manually, since the file cache does not support time-based expiration.

[code] Merb::Cache[:file_cache].delete( *keys ) [/code]

Conclusion:

This solution should keep you warm and toasty for the next 6 months until Merb 2 / Rails 3 comes out. In the meantime, let’s get behind a Franken-source project we can all believe in: the integrity of ActiveRecord and the concept of DataMapper (ActiveDataRecordMapper? ActivataRecapper?)

Keeping up with Merb

2008-10-09T12:41:15-08:00

It used to be that every time you blinked, there was a new Ruby framework being released: first Camping, then Merb, then Sinatra. The equivalent this season is point releases of Merb. Working its way to a 1.0 release in the middle of October, Merb is on a biweekly schedule, steadily working its way up from 0.9.3 to 1.0 over the past two months.

Each release has brought a host of new toys and welcome refinements to the framework, which make new projects a joy to start. The tradeoff is the nightmare created for supporting “legacy” Merb apps, where “legacy” with respect to the current release schedule means “more than two weeks old.”

Anyone who has tried to upgrade a Merb installation recently has quickly run into this nightmare: a seemingly endless chain of difficult-to-trace RubyGem dependency errors, broken framework freezing solutions, and the inability to run two apps on two different versions of Merb off the same Gems repository side-by-side.

What follows over the next few blog posts is less a solution and more a band-aid to the problem. It should be good enough to help troubleshoot upgrade issues, provide a footing for getting a old Merb app (0.9.2 – 0.9.3) upgraded to edge (0,9,8 currently), and help you hold your breath until 1.0 is releases and these legacy issues fade away.

With me being a band-aid salesman and not a real doctor, I’ll provide plenty of complaints, some suggestions, and more than likely very little in the way of actual solutions (patches, bug reports, etc.) Hopefully someone more clever than I will be able to see through our mysery to a proper, long term solution.

Here’s what is going to be discussed:

The nature of the problem: RubyGems, their dependencies, and the conflicts that arrise
Merb’s approach to solving the problem: freezing gems
Protecting your currently functioning Merb apps: how to make sure that upgrading one app doesn’t foobar your others.
Upgrading a Merb app: freezing Merb and upgrading a Merb app.