רובי און ריילס | Ruby on Rails

What Does Google Want According To Google

2010-02-14T12:44:00.002+02:00

No Permission crossdomain.xml

2010-01-05T18:50:00.005+02:00

So.. what exactly does crossdomain.xml do ?

"A cross-domain policy file is an XML document that grants a web client—such as Adobe Flash Player (though not necessarily limited to it)—permission to handle data across multiple domains. When a client hosts content from a particular source domain and that content makes requests directed towards a domain other than its own, the remote domain would need to host a cross-domain policy file that grants access to the source domain, allowing the client to continue with the transaction. Policy files grant read access to data as well as permit a client to include custom headers in cross-domain requests." from adobe.com

If you had enough of seeing all the routing errors on "/crossdomain.xml" in your logs,
you need to place a "NO PERMISSION" crossdomain.xml specifications.

Simply put the following content on "public/crossdomain.xml" file in your app:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE cross-domain-policy SYSTEM "http://www.adobe.com/xml/dtds/cross-domain-policy.dtd">

<cross-domain-policy>
<site-control permitted-cross-domain-policies="none"/>
</cross-domain-policy>

That's it, Access will be explicitly be denied to everyone.

Did you mean: recursion ?

2009-12-29T13:24:00.002+02:00

Search for the word: "recursion" on Google.

http://www.google.com/search?q=recursion

Now click the "Did you mean" Link.

Click again.

Repeat ;)

What does 'Ahava' means in Suomi (Finnish)

2009-11-13T15:12:00.003+02:00

I decided to verify the old rumor about the word Ahava in Finnish.

Ahava (אהבה) in Hebrew means love, but apparently it also has a meaning in Suomi, the Finnish language.

From:
http://translate.google.com/translate_t#fi|en|ahava

noun	march wind weather-beaten

Niceee :)

The Funniest Rails exception EVER

2009-11-08T15:09:00.003+02:00

While reading today one of my favorite Ruby on Rails blogs,
I encountered this funny Rails exception:

Exception Caught in EladMeidar#life

uninitialized constant Sanity

Knowing Elad first hand, and his hilarious sense of humor, I guess this is probably his new ingenious blog template.

But who know ;)

Google Bar Code Logo

2009-10-07T01:34:00.000+02:00

This is probably one of the best google logos I Have seen until now:

Clicking on the logo will take you to Google's search result for "bar code".
The bar code was invented exactly 57 years ago, on October 7th 1952.

jGrowl - jQuery Growl Plugin

2009-09-23T00:28:00.000+03:00

jQuery is great and so is Growl for Mac.
Combining the both with jGrowl creates a pretty cool and slick web application notification system.

jGrowl is a jQuery plugin that raises unobtrusive messages within the browser, similar to the way that OS X's Growl Framework works.

The New Yahoo Google

2009-09-22T20:51:00.000+03:00

Finally Yahoo had come to their senses.
Simple design for their search feature.

Its not about page loading time. Yahoo main homepage sometimes loads even faster then Google.
With Yahoo's amazing client performance technologies, their homepage is really blazing fast,
but the simple truth is that people don't really need this overwhelming flood of information and images.
(or maybe its just me ;)

take a loook here

Google Now Showing "Jump to" Links within Search Results

2009-09-22T13:53:00.001+03:00

When trying to google today the term "my applications twitter.com", I saw "Jump to" links within what usually contains the page's description or an excerpt from the article.

This is quite amazing:

Google have returned results for my query, which appears within links 'anchor text' in the resulted page, offering me to jump to that link, straight from the search results page.

I Love These 'Did You Know' Videos!

2009-09-21T14:20:00.001+03:00

Did you know 2.0

Did you know 3.0

Did You Know 4.0

Linux Baby Rocker - Funny!

2009-09-15T16:40:00.002+03:00

[v] Linux
[v] Bash script
[ ] Baby

I have just one thing missing..
Any (female) volunteers ? ;)

Gigya Ruby Integration: Signatures and Authentications

2009-07-28T17:58:00.004+03:00

Here we sign the status REST API call and pass it to gigya's servers.
I am using here the hmac/sha1 lib you can find here:

http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-hmac/

This authentication method only works for the status api call as the http parameters are ordered hard coded and not sorted automatically.
Some modifications may be needed for other API calls.

The user, id, status_message are instance methods of the Post class.
See the comments embeded in the code.

class Post
  def authenticate_and_share
     #@shmu: escape the status message and replace all + with %20 as spaces are CGI.escaped to +
     message_text = CGI.escape(status_message).gsub('+', '%20')
     user_id = user.id

     #@shmu: here are the parameters you need to supply from your Gigya site's settings page.
     api_url = "http://socialize.api.gigya.com/socialize.setStatus"
     api_key = "HERE_GOES_YOUR_API_KEY"
     gigya_secret_key = "HERE_GOES_YOUR_GIGYA_SECRET_KEY"

     #@shmu: decode secret key and prepare nonce.
     gigya_secret = Base64.decode64(gigya_secret_key)
     timestamp = Time.now.gmtime.to_i
     nonce = "#{user_id}#{id}#{timestamp}"
     http_method = "GET" #@shmu: define your HTTP method

     #@shmu: parameters are ordered alphabetically, base string include http method api call and parameters, all seperetaed with unescaped "&"
     parameters = CGI.escape("apiKey=#{CGI.escape(api_key)}&nonce=#{CGI.escape(nonce)}&status=#{message_text}&timestamp=#{timestamp}&uid=#{user_id}")
     base_string = "#{http_method}&#{CGI.escape(api_url)}&#{parameters}"

     #@shmu: hmac/sha1 encription for the gigya secret and the base_string
     hmacsha1 = HMAC::SHA1.digest(gigya_secret, base_string)
     gigya_sign = Base64.encode64(hmacsha1).chomp.gsub(/\n/,'')
     gigya_sign = CGI.escape(gigya_sign) #@shmu: we must escape the signature as well.

     #@shmu: finalized api request url with the signed signature
     request_url = "#{api_url}?apiKey=#{api_key}&nonce=#{nonce}&status=#{message_text}&timestamp=#{timestamp}&uid=#{user_id}&sig=#{gigya_sign}"
     puts request_url.inspect

     #@shmu: read the response
     response_text = open(request_url).read

     #@shmu: handle error messages from gigya XML output.
     regexp = /\(.*?)\<\/statusCode\>/
     status_code = response_text.scan(regexp).to_s.to_i
     if status_code == 200
       okmsg = "Gigya: Content Shared: #{status_message} [#{user.nick}]"
       logger.info okmsg
       return okmsg
     else
       raise "GIGYA RESPONSE ERROR: #{response_text.scan(/\(.*?)\<\/errorMessage\>/).to_s} \n\n #{response_text.inspect} \n\n\n [id:#{id}, user:#{user}]\n\nStatusMessage: #{status_message}\n\n Basestring: #{base_string}\n\n RequestURL: #{request_url}\n\n\n"
     end
   end
end

And here is the controller method for the ajax singature call:

class GigyaController < ApplicationController
  #@shmu
  # seal a signature to be passed by the user's client to gigya, to register its user id and the corresponding gigya user.
  # returns a json with all the parameters that are passed through the client.
  def signature
    if authenticated_user
      user_id = @user.id

      #@shmu: timestamp is GMT 0
      gmtimestamp = Time.now.gmtime.to_s(:db)
      base_string = "#{gmtimestamp}_#{user_id.to_s}"
      gigya_secret_key = "YOUR_GIGYA_SECRET_KEY"

      #@shmu: decode secret key and sign it with the base_string
      gigya_secret = Base64.decode64(gigya_secret_key)
      hmacsha1 = HMAC::SHA1.digest(gigya_secret, base_string)

      gigya_sign = Base64.encode64(hmacsha1).chomp.gsub(/\n/,'')

      #@shmu: signature is passed back to client in JSON format
      render :inline => "{ 'user_id' : \"#{user_id}\", 'timestamp' : \"#{gmtimestamp}\", 'signature' : \"#{gigya_sign}\" }" and return
    else
      render :inline => 'failed' and return
    end
  end
end

Post question in the comments, and i will be happy to answer

Videos on FireFox 3.5

2009-06-10T16:34:00.000+03:00

Apple's AppWall on WWDC

2009-06-10T12:45:00.002+03:00

This board shows you in real time when an iPhone app is being purchased, creating this cool effect you see in front of you.

What Obama Should Say in His Speech Addressing the Muslim World from Cairo

2009-06-01T11:59:00.006+03:00

by Ben Dror Yemini

"I’m standing here today, in the capital city of a state with an ancient historic legacy, in the heart of an area that created one of the most magnificent cultures. And I’ll tell you in the beginning of my speech: it's time to stop the racism against the Muslim world.

In the name of the American nation, I came here to ask for forgiveness.

For many years, many people in the west, including people in my country, referred to Muslims as "inferior" creatures.

Many people, unfortunately, adopted the condescending approach and the racism.

They also refer to Muslims as the retarded children of the world.

Let me avoid from covering up the information. The situation is bad. Three extended reports about the Arab world were published in the last decade. These reports were written by intellectuals from the Arab world.

The situation that comes up from them is rough. Most of the Arabs live in dictator governments. The investment in education in these countries is much smaller than the world average. The level of the university's is low. In twenty two Arab states there is not one democratic government. The amount of scientifically Publications, that has significance to the nations themselves and the world in general, strives to zero.

On the other hand, the amount of hatred publications hits a world record. Except for one state, Tunisia, where there’s serious effort of changing the sad reality, the woman status is very low. The depression continues.

So it is also in the financial area. The investments in research and development are low. The Muslim world almost doesn't produce a thing.

With out the oil on her side, Saudi would look like Somalia. Tribal wars, ethnicity and religiosity are the main characteristics of this world. Muslims slaughtering Muslims and the world is silent. The numbers aren’t deceptive. In the last six decades, about twelve million Muslims in the world were killed. Ten million of them were killed by Muslims. Most of them by totalitarian governments and followers of the radical Muslim politics. The people who shout in protests "death to America" aren’t killing Americans. They kill they’re own brothers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Algeria and Pakistan.

These are the same people who dictate the depression, the absence of liberties, and woman rights. There is no war between the west and the Islam. It’s a lie. There’s a war between islamistics and the Islam. It’s not even a war, it's a slaughter. And the world is quiet.

The racists think that you are different. They think that you are not like other human beings. You can get out from the circle of depression, slaughter, ignorance and distress. It will happen only if the whole world will treat you as adults. And mostly-if you will treat yourselves as adult and equal people.

Too many years there were people in the west who blamed the whole world in the distress of the Muslim world. Too many who released you from all responsibility to your condition. Too many provided you excuses to any wrong you are doing. No more, Muslim brothers. No more. The Oppression of women is not a result of colonialism.

The genocide in Darfur is not a result of Zionism. Civil wars in Pakistan, Algeria, Somalia and Lebanon are not a result of western giant companies.

The massive massacres of Sadam Hussein did not happen because of the Globalization.

The ones who dismisses the Muslim world from responsibility into the culture of fear and operation, is hurting the Muslims and reinforces the islamistics who slaughter, them.

The west is guilty, they told you. The Zionism is guilty; they were moving you towards hate.

There isn’t a bigger lie. There isn’t bigger racism. As a son to a Muslim father, I don't think you are different. And the first condition for getting out from the distress is acknowledging that a choice has to be made between external and self deception to self Responsibility. Stop blaming all the others. Stop the self fraud. It is time for responsibility.

I am not saying anything new. Everything I say, many Muslims claim. They are here, among you. They are worth listening to. They don’t mean bad. On the contrary. They want the best for the Muslim world. They know that there are common human values that are not values of another certain groups. Equality, freedom of speech, honor, individual liberties and woman liberation isn’t western values. These are universal values. Every society and every nation and every community who left out the internal depression and the woman depression achieved accomplishments and wellbeing. The Muslim world was at the pick of his prime before hounded of years. He con and should take again a place of honor in development, prosperity, creation. Their key is one: adopting universal values while preserving the self legacy .It's true that sometimes it is contradictive. And because of that, there is a need for compatibility. He, who wants to stick to values that were acceptable hundred of years ago, can not complain for his accomplishments to be hundred of years behind.

I will not avoid one of the major issues that keep the Arab world busy. Israel. You got used to slogans. It is time to get rehabilitated from them. Instead of learning from this young state, you have made her the excuse of every problem. Watch what millions of Jewish refugee are accomplished in several years. More scientifically publications, more medicine development, more inventions are made in Israel than the whole Muslim world.

Seven million Israelis contribute to developing the mankind than 1.4 milliard Muslims. Is this country interfering anyone in Saudi to develop medicine? Is this country causing the genocide in Darfur? Will this country always continue to be the excuse for every injustice and oppression?

My many advisers prepared me an entire different speech. They claimed it’s is not allowed for me to tell you the truth. That it might hurt your Muslim dignity. I’m sorry, but they are also captured, in a condescending state of mind. I, barrack Hussein obama, swore to fight racism. And that is why is did not give up. I came to you as a son to a Muslim father in order to capture this historic moment and say: no more lies. No more excuses. No more racism. No more self deception.

In these moments people are walking to the streets with slogans of "death to America". Those are the people who slaughter Muslims. If Islam is the religion of peace and Reconciliation, if there is another Islam- let it appear now. Go out to the streets, people of peace, because if you will lose you will become victims. Please, dear Muslims, see me as a brother and a partner. Let’s depress the depressors, and march towards a more fair footer. This is an opportunity for change. Let’s take advantage of it together. With hope. With faith. With a new path. Yes, we can."

With the end of his speech, obama and his entourage went out to the roof of the building. Helicopters that were ready for them, took them to a ship of the six's navy. Violent protests started to spread amongst the Arab world. For the first time the anti- radical Muslims also went out to the streets. A war between the Muslims and islamistics has begun.

Please Digg and/or Tweet this post.

* All rights reserved to Ben Dror Yemini, the content in this blog post was translated from his original Hebrew article.

Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009

2009-05-29T13:15:00.002+03:00

Techcrunch Article

Choose a Life - Choose Your Future (Trainspotting)

2009-05-26T17:31:00.002+03:00

Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family.
Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars,
compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good
health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed
interest mortage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your
friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a
three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics.
Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning.
Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing
game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose
rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable
home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up
brats you spawned to replace yourself.

Choose your future.

Choose life.

Log Javascript Errors using AJAX

2009-05-26T12:46:00.003+03:00

A lot of users were complaining lately that some core functionalities are not working for them any more.
The problem here was that for me there was no problems what so ever, and couldn't recreate the issue in any way.

Emailing the users and waiting for their response is also quite problematic. (Especially if one of them is 80years old and doesn't really understand what's going on.

The first solution for these kind of situations that came into my mind, was to create a system that will catch all errors and will pass it to the server for logging using Ajax.

It seems that everything you can think about is already out there:

http://www.dotnetheaven.com/UploadFile/sundaramkumar/LogJavascriptErrors02272008002456AM/LogJavascriptErrors.aspx

Of course we can tweak these methods and say X limit errors can be sent to server (to avoid flooding), or use a variable to turn it on/off (especially after new deploys or when we are getting a lot of complaints from users)

Shay Aggasi's Amazing TED Talk about a Better Place

2009-05-24T20:21:00.001+03:00

This is an idea worth spreading !

The Most Beautiful Tag Cloud (Ball) I Have Ever Seen

2009-04-21T16:54:00.002+03:00

kudos to http://geofollow.com/.

LinkedIn CEO's Three Rules of Investments

2009-04-20T14:04:00.001+03:00

1. How will you reach a massive audience?

In real estate the wisdom says "location, location, location." In consumer Internet, think "distribution, distribution, distribution." Thousands of products launch every month on hundreds of thousands of new Web pages. How does a company rise above the noise to attract massive discovery and adoption? YouTube did it through existing channels like MySpace, which already reached millions. Yelp had strong SEO, which found them a mass audience searching for restaurants and nightlife. Facebook's University-centric approach landed them 80% adoption across a campus within 60 days of launch. Every Net entrepreneur should answer these questions: How do we get to one million users? Then how do we get to 10 million users? Then how will you get deep engagement by your users.

2. What is your unique value proposition?

The Internet space is crowded. A product needs to be sufficiently innovative to distinguish itself from the pack, but not so forward thinking as to alienate the user. Many entrepreneurs create incremental improvements on existing products. This can be big – Google revolutionized search when AOL and Yahoo! were presumed to have it locked up – but more often, the pitch sounds like, "It's a dating site, but for senior citizens…" I want to see innovation that is categorically distinct from existing propositions. Digg lets users decide which headlines are newsworthy. Last.fm tracks music listening with an iTunes plugin and buffer great music discovery. Flickr enables users to share and tag photos in new ways.

3. Will your business be capital efficient?

This may be the most important of the three. Even if you have a mass audience and unique value prop, a business fails without cash flow. An initial round of financing is important, but how reliable is later financing? Will investors see the right elements in the next stage? Your product must scale intelligently – this is why I like software. A well-coded site can adapt to mass demand without its capital expenditures scaling out of control. A product like TypePad can grow to 10 million users without half the growing pains of a service like WebVan, the Web 1.0 startup that attempted to deliver groceries to users' doorsteps. Try reaching Facebook scale with a service like that.

Read the full article on TechCrunch

Who is Reid Hoffman ?

die mongrel.. die!

2009-04-17T12:23:00.001+03:00

Passenger Gets Nginx Support With New Version 2.2.0

a nice screencast with that annoying familiar voice :
http://www.modrails.com/videos/passenger_nginx.mov

Personas by FireFox Mozilla Labs

2009-04-07T23:18:00.003+03:00

This cutie is a MUST!

Personas for Firefox is a extension that adds lightweight theming to your browser.

Personas is a prototype that builds upon the ideas that:

* themes today are too hard to find, install and use
* graphic designers should be able to style the browser without having to code
* browsers can be more than just desktop software, they can include online components
* people just want their computer to be a little more fun and personal

from: http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/12/personas-for-firefox/

Get it here:
http://www.getpersonas.com/

Twitter IRB - Ruby Interpeter on Twitter

2009-04-07T23:09:00.003+03:00

http://axiombox.com/rubx/

a ruby treat for פסח :)

Evan Williams Talking about Twitter on TED

2009-03-01T01:42:00.001+02:00