Matthew 12:37 - Jeff Geerling's Blog

Dropbox: File Syncing for Everything!

geerlingguy — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:08:36 +0000

I just upgraded my Dropbox account [referral-free link] from 2 GB to 50 GB; I started using the file synchronization service about a year ago, and since the day I started using it, it's been one of the best pieces of software and Internet services I've ever used.

Neat little upgrade graphic!

There has been zero downtime, their software works flawlessly through proxies, through firewalls, through SOCKS5, etc. (and, of course, through an unprotected connection), and it's always as fast as my connection allows. I rarely give such a complete recommendation for a software product, but Dropbox, like TextMate and Tweetie, is an absolutely indispensable program for my needs.

I use it to sync all my personal files, some application preferences (I often use symlinks in OSX to get the preferences to sync properly), and even private files (to do this securely, I first create a secure disk image in OSX, then mount it, copy files to it, then unmount it. Once unmounted, it will sync the encrypted disk image over Dropbox to my other computers).

The only caveat is that synchronization works great, but not if you have the same file open on two of your computers at the same time. I currently use my Dropbox across 3 Macs and 2 PCs, and there hasn't been an outage on any of the computers.

If you'd like to give me a little extra storage space (not that I need any, but y'know, bigger is better), here's a referral link: Create a Free Dropbox Account.

Updated Front Page Images...

geerlingguy — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:17:40 +0000

After a few months without seeing an update, I finally took the time to process a few more photos for the front page of Lifeisaprayer.com - you can visit the front page and take a look for yourself. You can always click on one of the images to see them all for yourself, in a timeline of sorts.

October 2, 2010

geerlingguy — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:49:09 +0000

...of course, our rings won't be gold, nor will they be intertwined in some crazy manner which prevents either of us from ever putting them on. But they'll be on our fingers on October 2nd!

Please pray for me and for my fiancée as we progress on the journey toward married life and communal love! Expect a few more posts about Marriage/Weddings, and about love in general, between now and then.

Volleyball/Webmaster Status Codes

geerlingguy — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:45:38 +0000

Some of the crazy thoughts that go through my head... yesterday I was watching some of the other teams play at De Smet (where I'll be coaching the freshmen volleyball team this year), and I thought of a relevant comparison between HTTP/1.1 status codes and volleyball plays.

101 Switching Protocols - A play's not working? Move a couple guys around.
200 OK - Good job. We got the point.
300 Multiple Choices - The setter always has a few...
304 Not Modified - When a hitter misses the ball.
305 Use Proxy - When the setter is out of the play.
307 Temporary Redirect - A tip over the net.
400 Bad Request - Setter/hitter confusion.
401 Unauthorized - The libero tries hitting the ball above the plane of the net.
403 Forbidden - A blocker stuffs his opponent.
404 Not Found - When the ball hits the floor and nobody moves to pass it.
405 Method Not Allowed - A lift.
406 Not Acceptable - A missed serve.
408 Request Timeout - Self-explanatory.
409 Conflict - These require the referee's intervention.
417 Expectation Failed - When the players don't live up to the coach's expectations.
500 Server Error - See "406 Not Acceptable"
502 Bad Gateway - A poor set.
503 Service Unavailable - Anytime a middle hitter is serving.

More status codes: HTTP/1.1 Status Code Definitions

The "Occasional CMS User" Myth - or... People Don't Like Updating Their Own Content

geerlingguy — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:46:29 +0000

Relevant Article: The Myth of the Occasional CMS User

Often, one of the big justifications for a CMS is removing the webmaster bottleneck and delegating content entry to the people who have the information. The implicit assumption is that everyone wants to directly maintain their portion of the website but technology is standing in the way. But if you visit a CMS customer a while after implementation you are likely to find that the responsibility of adding content is still concentrated in a relatively small proportion of the employee population.

Unfortunately, this is almost always the case. There are rare occasions when people really do take ownership of their site/content, but typically, I'll be asked by someone to set up a system where they can easily edit their own content.

I spend a lot of hours doing this work, then they pay me a nice amount of money, then they progress to send me information to post to their website. Granted, I get more work out of this, and it's easier for me to update the content as well, but, frankly, I find it to be a waste of my time.

If you want to manage your own content, then manage your own content. Don't waste your money on a CMS if you're going to use a 'webmaster' or whatever you want to call the person.

A Utopian City...

geerlingguy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:46:57 +0000

Today I read a post from the Guardian entitled "In Kansas City, school's out." This article fails to engage me on so many levels, and the saddest thing is that the journalist behind the article, Sasha Abramsky, fails, like pretty much all other journalists, to find and highlight the core problem of why school systems (most especially public school systems) are failing, or are, at least, in horrible shape financially, and in enrollment numbers.

"If there are lessons to be learned from Kansas City's dismal experiences, they are about the importance of holistic thinking: of looking for ways not just to desegregate schools but to preserve integrated, economically diverse urban cores; of providing middle-class families with reasons to continue using public services; of building up the notion of common community again so that the public sector flourishes rather than withers" (Source).

The glaring problem that is always overlooked, in this article, in most articles about failing schools, and in almost every conversation I've heard on the subject, is that nobody cares about the kids anymore.

I am, God-willing, going to become a parent in less than two years' time. I want my child(ren) to have the absolute best education, the best opportunities, and the strongest faith and most intelligent sensibilities possible. Does public school offer this for my child? In some districts, maybe. In my experience, three key issues are holding back many parents who, like me, want their children to become intelligent and holy:

Spirit & Truth - Archbishop Robert Carlson

geerlingguy — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:10:30 +0000

The image above was taken at Spirit and Truth St. Louis' Thursday night Benediction, this week with Archbishop Robert J. Carlson (Archbishop of Saint Louis, MO).

Spirit and Truth is a community of young adults (there are many of them in the United States) focused on building life-giving relationships through study of Sacred Scripture, discussion of relevant issues, and, most centrally, through the worship of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. You can read more about Spirit and Truth St. Louis on their website.

Give me Back that Fish!

geerlingguy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:07:27 +0000

Give me back that Filet O' Fish, give me that fish!
Give me back that Filet O' Fish, give me that fish!
What if it were you hanging up on this wall?
If it were you in that sandwich you wouldn't be laughing at ALLLLLL!

Above are the lyrics for one of the most annoying... yet intriguing commercials ever! Who remembers McDonalds' commercial (old big mac comm)? I sure do! Looks like they have another great and catchy tune on their hands, although this one doesn't have much in the way of logical sense to it.

You can download the jingle (or just listen to it) and be amazed... for hours and hours!

Here's an MP3 of Give me back that Filet O' Fish.
Here's an M4R (ringtone for iPhone) of Give me back that Filet O' Fish.

And below are the two (2009 and 2010) TV commercials run by McDonalds to promote their Filet O' Fish sandwich. Who can ignore a talking fish, mounted on a wall?

Internet Explorer Woes: Floating a Span using jQuery - Order Matters!

geerlingguy — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:48:50 +0000

I spent the greater part of two hours trying to debug an Internet Explorer bug today. Basically, I wanted to get an image that I uploaded to have a caption applied through jQuery. I used the Image Caption module for Drupal to do this, and set it to grab the 'alt' text in a <span> underneath the image, and wrap both the image and caption inside another <span>, which would grab the float/alignment for the image, and use that to float it left or right (or neither).

Well, in Internet Explorer 6 and 7, the image would appear on its own line, as a block-level element. I tried everything short of throwing my computer against a wall to get this to work, but was unsuccessful. I finally went for broke and tried some thing so dumb that it couldn't possibly work—but it did.

I changed the order of the inline css properties in the script so the float would be applied before the "display: block" value. Bingo, IE works great!

Some things that I have to do to get things to work in Explorer... I hate you, Microsoft!!

You can view a page with the aforementioned image caption here: Featured in the St. Louis Review: Christian Marriage.

Archdiocese of Saint Louis Redesigns Website

geerlingguy — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:30:00 +0000

The Archdiocese of Saint Louis today upgraded its entire website to a new design and a new platform, allowing offices and agencies to more quickly and more easily communicate with the faithful in the Archdiocese (and around the world!).

I've been working on this project (with a lot of help from Palantir, a web development company in Chicago) and some local developers for the past year, and I am pleased with the result (I hope you are, too!). I've written up more information about the technical aspects of the site on Open Source Catholic (read more about the Archdiocese of Saint Louis' Upgraded Website), and I will continue writing some posts about specific details on the Open Source Catholic website.

Some of the highlights of the redesign:

The new Archdiocesan-wide Calendar of Events
The revamped Prayer Request system
The accessible and standards-compliant design (tested in all major browsers)
A new Parish, School, and Organization directory.
Every organization now has a more unified interface, and the adminstrative backend is greatly improved

Go ahead and visit the upgraded website: Archdiocese of Saint Louis

"The Pearl" - Song by Ryan Vilbig

geerlingguy — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:40:57 +0000

A nice song I was sent by a friend, titled "The Pearl."

The Pearl from Ryan Vilbig on Vimeo.

Ryan Vilbig is discerning a possible vocation to the priesthood, in Saint Louis. Please pray for all seminarians, and those considering the priesthood!

This is my 5,000th Tweet.

geerlingguy — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:32:46 +0000

My 5,000th Tweet:

My Latest Article: How to Make a Crêpe

geerlingguy — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:12:13 +0000

Over in the articles section on this website: How to Make a Crêpe, then How to Enjoy a Crêpe.

Hint: Spread on a lot of Nutella!

This is Why SEO is Important, I Guess...

geerlingguy — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:59:21 +0000

After reading this comment thread about Facebook logins on ReadWriteWeb, I feel sad to call myself a Facebook user. The sheer number of clueless users who actually thought ReadWriteWeb was Facebook is a sad fact. The fact that they login to facebook by going to Google and typing in "Facebook Login" is also sad. Could they not simply type in facebook.com? I guess the idea of a URL is too outlandish for people.

What about a bookmark? My grandma, who only does a few things on the web, knows how to make a bookmark and go back to it. A lot of the Facebook users who posted comments looked quite a bit younger than my grandma, and, apparently, they cannot figure out things she could do in her sleep!

The takeaway? SEO counts. If someone types in "Best Hardware Store in St. Louis," it seems likely they'll believe whatever Google gives as the first result. It's pretty easy to target these kinds of searches... and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

P.S. Farmville. Ugh!

Silent Monks Singing Hallelujah

geerlingguy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:22:41 +0000