Smoke Signals

Getting cozy with JS

2006-10-30T12:18:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been doing a LOT of work in JS. It was painful at first. Especially since I have been doing so much Ruby programming. After a couple of cool features I wrote over at Soulcast.com. Like the 60 seconds editable comments with spiffy effects and some AJAX action, and the big one a cross-browser WYSIWYG editor. I have come to love the Prototype Library and the Ruby-esque things it gives

Long time, no posts

2006-05-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

I just checked here and noticed I haven't blogged about anything in a long time. I have a couple of things going on that I can blog about so here it goes. I decided to use my mac mini exclusively at work. I wanted to see how well it would integrate with exchange and our fileserver but I also wanted to get used to using OS X. So far Entourage isn't quite like Outlook with exchange there are quite

Google Reader Hack

2006-03-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

For those of you who use Google Reader, and if you don’t, sign up it is cool! Here is a hack so you can view specific feeds you subscribe to. There are other readers out there that do this but not on the internet. So let’s suppose you are like me and have 10+ feeds you read regularly. If you view the default reading list, it shows a mish-mash of all the feeds you are subscribed to. Which is cool,

Rails Recipes

2006-03-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

I bought the domain Rails Recipes last year in hopes of making a site that is a place for people to post recipes on how to do certain things in Rails, much like the ZopeLabs site I used to be a part of a few years ago. Needless to say, I didn’t end up implementing anything on it. To my surprise, I get an email from Chad Fowler of the Programming Ruby fame about a book he is working on called

Getting into Gaming.. for kids

2006-02-20T14:50:00.000-08:00

I finally have a decent design and have broken it out into valid XHTML and CSS. I see a lot of room for improvement but it will come in time. What am I talking about? Gaming4Kids, my latest project…Gaming4Kids came about as a response to me trying to find out which games are worth buying and playing for my daughter and me. I searched google, tried going to the big game sites and didn’t find much.

Paul Graham Rocks!

2006-02-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

I love reading his essays. How To Do What You Love is inspiring. It makes me feel less of a dolt because I have had a lot of hair-brained ideas and a “ping pong” job history. I am always improving myself and/or my situation at least I think I am. I am about to start a new project which falls completely under the “Doing what you love” umbrella. Will it be a failure? I don’t know. I will never win

New MacPorn

2006-01-10T11:14:00.000-08:00

Chatting with fellow Mac Zealots during the Keynote so we can post news we all find was the only way to get all the info streaming in at once. Intel and the Macintosh, I love their slogan “What’s an Intel chip doing in a Mac? A whole lot more than it’s ever done in a PC.” Love it! New Apps, new hardware… Pure Mac Porn. Curious to see how long it will be before someone has it running on their

Congratulations Michael!

2006-01-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

Michael Schubert is now a ThoughtWorks Employee. Obie Fernandez has a page on his blog welcoming him to the team. What a cool place to work. He deserves it, he is one bad-assed Rails programmer, sysadmin and a good guy. He is the reason I got into Rails. He came by my work one day with his laptop and built a working app right there in front of me with Rails. Been hooked ever since… I am not quite

AllPeers Kazza in your browser?

2006-01-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

Well it isn’t exactly like Kazza but it is one damn cool file sharing concept that I have a feeling is going to blow the F*&^k up. You have to check out the screenshots. If this works like advertised it will be really cool stuff. The site was digged so it might be down. I am excited about it. I signed up for the beta hope I get to test it out.

Rails is hitting the Enterprise

2005-12-21T15:35:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to ThoughtWorks and Obie on getting the winning bid. I have a friend who is trying to get a job with you guys he would be perfect for this project wink wink. I wish I were able to practice the Rails at my current place of work. Someday…

Perma Beta

2005-12-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

The Museum of Modern Betas is a cool site. It has a large list of web apps that are in Beta. Which I found mine on it :) However mine is technically "Not even Beta" but it was still funny to see similarthings.com on it.

I used to think

2005-11-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

I used to think….When I was younger I used to think I could make thing like Jason Rollette’s Underwater ROV submarine camera in my spare time using things my parents had around the house and in the garage. My brother and I used to build things all the time. A lot of times we built things that could get us hurt. Explosions and fire are cool as a kid when combined with Hotwheels. Hell, they are

Blog post spamming sucks!

2005-11-08T12:29:00.000-08:00

I get so many comment spams now it isn't even funny. I think I am going to turn off comments. Spammers really make the web suck.

Google Reader

2005-11-08T12:24:00.000-08:00

I use Google Reader a lot for getting up-to-date with things going on. I noticed the other day that the subscriptions list not only supports navigation by hot keys but also by scrolling on your mouse's scroll wheel. A web app that uses mouse scrolling to navigate. That is bad-assed!!!

What the Flock?

2005-10-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

So here it is, the browser that my friend Bryan did the interface for. It is nice. Actually I am using it to post this. Weee. Pretty cool bro!

I love it when I’m right!

2005-10-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

Which isn't very often :) HahApple IS selling a video iPod. That is so friggin cool. They also have 2000 music videos available for download. Like I said before, I probably won’t be able to afford one but I can drool.

Agile Software Developers Help Please!

2005-10-11T15:20:00.000-07:00

I have been reading about Agile Software Development. Starting with The Rails Book. I mean look at the name. My problem is applying it to my current workplace. We already struggle with scope-creep and clients causing projects to drag on and on. Granted some of it is our fault but… Our clients sometimes don’t get back to us on “iterations” or emails/phone calls we send to them for weeks. One of

Friends like this...

2005-10-10T12:32:00.000-07:00

I am envious of Bryan . He IM's me after getting back from Web 2.0 Conference telling me about his lunch with David - (RubyOnRails, loudthinking), Waxy - (Waxy,upcoming) , John - (Daring Fireball) and some other Playas in web 2.0. People I look up to. Bryan is the man, he has always been one of the best designers I have ever seen. He tells me he did UI for 3 of the not-so-many demo'd apps at Web

Haha, what did I tell ya

2005-10-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

I have speculated about this before. I think a video player would be so damn sweet. Not like I could afford one hah! But still, I can drool... The whole story.

Beta, Ajax, Web 2.0

2005-10-06T13:44:00.000-07:00

Ahh buzz words. It is pretty funny seeing all these companies throwing them around. It reminds me of circa 1999 when companies were throwing buzz words around to get investors to bleed money for them. Isn't the point of creating a web app or any app to make it easy to use and useful? Why should anyone care if it is Beta or uses Ajax yada yada? Shouldn’t it work intuitively? If you aren’t

Gonna move this bad boy

2005-10-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

Not like I get a bunch of people reading this blog but I am going to move it to its own domain. That and a bunch of other crap I have going on should take up the rest of my god-given time. Hah!

Fuel-cell powered MP3 player

2005-09-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

This looks cool. I don't even have an iPod but I can wish for things like an MP3 player that is powered by Methanol. I wonder what the cost to refill it would be and how you would store it properly. It is good to see a company making strides towards using fuel-cell technology in products. It is a huge step in my opinion. Battery companies can't be happy about it.If they try to fight it, they will

Arrr, today is the day me matey's

2005-09-19T10:12:00.000-07:00

Fer those of ye mates who always need a reason to talk like a pirate, today is that day. Alas, me eyepatch has found new glory. Ahoy!

Does Cold Fusion Scale?

2005-09-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

I browse Myspace and notice more often than not, it is having "technical problems". If you look at the page extension it has .cfm which is Macromedia's ColdFusion extension. I know there are tons of users and their traffic is probably outrageous but it does beg the question; Does Cold Fusion scale?.

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery

2005-09-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

If this doesn't remind you of something ahem OS X then... It does look nice and "pretty" but what in the hell is it giving users other than a slick interface? There are already style editiors for XP. I have read many of the main features in this next version of Windows Vista have been scrapped. Is this a security upgrade? I am going to stay far away from this one for at least 2 years.

OSX on my PC

2005-09-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

I am not going to install it but I do have a good friend who has a BOOTABLE OSX CD that runs on a PC. He says it is very fast and works well with SSE4 I think. He is going to install the emulated Firefox on it soon and see how it works. I guess the whole Trusted Computing thing isn't what it is cracked up to be. Unless someone else can chime in and tell me how Apple is going to save this one.I

Louisiana, what went wrong?

2005-09-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

Watching the human-drama unfold in the flooded and abandonned parts of Louisiana is a sad reflection of our incompetencies. In particular the one that I think is on everyone's minds: "Why did it take 5 days to respond". Even at this point the rescue effort isn't going as well as it should. Bureaucracy is one of the reasons this has happened but most importantly the blame should be placed on FEMA.

What's up Apple's sleeve?

2005-08-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

Looks like Apple may be making a videoPod. I have speculated on this for a while. I think Apple is on its way to providing HD video to your desktop or HDTV. This would put them at the forefront for an iTunes-like service for HD video. If they do this successfully they will be the #1 place for HD downloads much like they are currently for mp3's. Go Apple!

Why Rails sucks!

2005-08-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

Here's the story: My Co-worker who is an all-around good guy and is kind of our "lead programmer" if we have such a thing here was mentioning something about our IT guy installing Rails and Ruby on our server. Our IT guy is a damn smart and well-known Rails Programmer. He is no spring chicken and has a masters in compsci, has written some well-know Rails apps and is a Unix admin guru. He set up

Are you a pothead alligator?

2005-08-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

If so, this guy might be able to help you out. Once he gets out of jail that is. One more thing, lay off the pot. An alligator like yourself shouldn't be using drugs!

Hah, Intelligent Falling Theory

2005-08-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

Gotta love the Onion. This is classic. I think they might have to start teaching Astrology in Astronomy class too.

Religion of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

2005-08-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

Fyling Spaghetti Monsterism is a religion that "prophet" Bobby Henderson started as a protest to the whole teaching of creationism or intelligent design in schools. In particular the Kansas State Board of Education's descision to allow the subject to be taught in schools.I have blogged about this before. I find the topic interesting. I have since changed my views on the subject partially because

OSX on X86 CRACKED!

2005-08-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

I am interested to see how this plays out. I am not really sure if Apple can keep people from doing this. I have read about the "Trusted Computing" technology but hackers always find a way. I would try it but it looks like a lot of work to half-way run OSX on my Windows machine. Although I am interested in what it can run and what the performance is. I have a Mac Mini anyway. Plus Apple's

Google Sidebar spyware?

2005-08-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

I heard about Google's new sidebar this morning and I immediately thought "Spyware".it observes what kind of content the user is interested in and serves it upI love GoOgle. They are a great company. Watching what I do on the internet to "taylor" content to me isn't a smart move. I am curious to see what their stock does once news agencies start picking this story up and calling this sidebar

Will Repilee soon be able to "feel"?

2005-08-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last month I blogged about the female android that can respond to touch and looks pretty realistic. I just came accross this article which talks about a researcher that has created a skin that senses pressure and temperature.Japanese researchers have developed a flexible artificial skin that could give robots a humanlike sense of touch.I bet those dudes who created Repilee (the female robot) are

A working 80MPG custom Prius Hybrid

2005-08-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

It looks like someone has beat the car manufacturers in creating a near 100mpg hybrid. It is interesting that someone with $3,000 and some spare time can do what car manufacturers have said they are "trying" to do. The drawback to this car is that you have to plug it in.Why don't they make solar panel that goes on the top of the car? During summer I am sure it would provide plenty of electricity

So they think Firefox is losing the battle

2005-08-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

It is pretty funny how a place like Forbes is willing to diss Firefox so soon in the game. They must be majority shareholders of M$. Firefox, which recently seemed like the mouse that roared, may be singing another tune. Don't start playing taps until the soldier is dead!

Strangers on my flight - Sinatra

2005-08-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

This is just too hillarious not to blog about. The guy actually sounds like Frank... A bit.

Very Useful Firefox Extension

2005-08-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

I came accross this Firefox extension on the Ruby On Rails mailing list. It is a sidebar extension that lets you browse documentation. It has CSS 2.1, HTML, Rails 0.13.1 and Ruby Core API. I love this thing! It is very handy to have around. I use in in conjunction with the edit css feature that comes with the Web Developer Toolbar and Aardvark Extension. Some must-have's if you do CSS and

Gamer dies of exhaustion

2005-08-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

Damn, I thought my days of playing Medal of Honor on a team and playing till wee hours in the morn was bad. This guy just didn't know when to hang up the mouse and go to bed.Lee recently quit his job in the southeastern city of Taegu to spend more time playing gamesI can imagine that conversation "I am giving my two weeks notice, I need more time to play games". Friggin hillarious!

About Me

2005-08-09T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hello, I am Scott Burton a web developer in sunny Bakersfield California. I have a plethora of web application development skills as well as site design skills. Some of you may know me as spurton on the #rubyonrails irc channel where I hang out a lot lately.My Geek PhilosophyI believe in using the best tool available and to never get married to a technology. Due to that mantra I have had a lot of

So that's how Apple is going to do it

2005-08-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

I was wondering how Apple was going to keep people from running OSX on home-brewed computers since they are switching to X86. I wouldn't mind building my own mac. It wouldn't be the same though. Remember Attack of the Clones? We had a couple of the Power Computing clones at my old work. They were ok. That was the same place where one of the employees used to argue with me on a regular basis

Creationism in schools it isn't so easy

2005-08-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

What if creationism was allowed to be taught in schools as a differing opinion of evolution? Wouldn't other religious groups come screaming "Why don't they teach (insert how we got here belief) too?" It would open the floodgates of religous groups who believe all sorts of strange things. Why wouldn't we teach those beliefs too? Remember these guys?

Intelligent design corrupts education?

2005-08-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

Reading over a comment on my last post I cam accross This web post where PZ Meyers suggests thatGeorge W. Bush has endorsed Intelligent Design creationism's plan to corrupt education. Corrupt education? #1 since when was education not corrupt. #2 How in the hell can presenting a belief "corrupt education"? And then there's this one "Scientists have established the fact of evolution". Problem is

Intelligent Design?

2005-08-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

So Bush is saying kids should be taught about "Intelligent Design". Well I could be a wise-ass about him saying anything regarding "Intelligence" heh but I will leave that to the obvious. I think it is a good move. Let people see the differences of opinion and they can form their own beliefs. That is a good thing!

Chappelle's show canceled

2005-08-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

I hope this is just a publicity stunt. I love that show damnit! I am bummed if it is never coming back on the air. That was some classic shit! Sad day.

All I can say is...

2005-08-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

Holy Shit!!

Palmeiro on Winstrol?

2005-08-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, the steroid crackdown in baseball is really ramping up. I am surprised these guys didn't have the sense to stop taking it since they knew this was going on. It isn't like steroid use in this sport along with many others hasn't been prevalent since the 70's when our Governor helped make steroids a household name. Have you seen his competing years pictures. He used to take Test, Decca and

Firefox popup stopping

2005-08-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

I wondered how those spam ad bastards were able to do popups on me even though I use Firefox. Well, now I know why and I know how to fix it. Turns out the jerks figured out how to use flash to do the popup. Hopefully this will fix that annoying problem. Die you spam ad bastards!

Here we come to save the day!

2005-08-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

The new Apple Mighty Mouse looks nice and has some impressive Features. I think I might have to buy me one of these bad-boys for my new Mac Mini. It will go great with my new keyboard I got too. Now... the only thing left is a Cinema Display. Ahh toys.. at least I will make money playing with them.

YAML me

2005-08-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

I recently built a list in YAML for Ruby in a Ruby on Rails project. Reading the docs I noticed if you do item: - this - that it creates an array of those values. That is sweet. Since loading a YAML file into rails automatically creates a hash of the values, it makes some cool list comprehension possible.

Gates and Google Bullshit

2005-07-29T11:38:00.000-07:00

This is Bullshit!. I don't see how MS pulls stuff off like this. They are just proving they are still the big bully's they used to be. Why don't they focus their efforts on making M$ software more secure?Those "Can't work anywhere similar to our field of business for a year after you work here" clauses are crap anyway. How can a corporation limit where an individual works when they are no longer

Female android what was she really going to be used for?

2005-07-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is kinda creepy but at the same time cool. I can only imagine what these guys were thinking while creating this robot. I wonder if she is anatomically correct? I am not curious for my own purposes but to maybe understand their motivation for creating her if you know what I mean. Wink wink.We have found that people forget she is an android while interacting with herUh people like who the

$1 t-shirts

2005-07-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

I guess these could be $100 T-shirts too. Scroll down to the last image to see what it turns out like. Either someone has too much time on their hands or has mastered the art of Origami. There is an Asian lady at a chinese restaurant we eat dinner at who makes swans for my daughter everytime we go there. Now if I could make a $100 bill out of a t-shirt, that would be bad-assed!

Colorful ant torture

2005-07-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

I guess this beats burning them with a magnifying glass. I used to have an old neon Bud-light sign in my room as a teenager. The material around the back of the tube would conduct electrical sparks and we would set ants on them and hold our finger about a cm over them and shock them to death. Sometimes they would pop. Good times, good times.

The Next Venture

2005-07-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

The next thing I will be focusing my time (spare time) on is another website. It is actually an old idea that I was never able to get off the ground. I feel that now is the time. It also coincides with my other project SimilarThings It will also give more features to that project. Maybe some that will not show up on the public site but most probably will. The website is Gaming4Kids.com This site

Harry Potter

2005-07-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

I just bought the latest Harry Potter book for me and my daughter. I am looking forward to reading it and letting my daughter read it. She is only 6 but has a 3rd grade level of reading. I think she will enjoy it. I didn't stand in line at 12AM like a couple of other people I know. I actually found it at Toys R Us right at the door on a table with books aplenty. Weird note: ToysRUs is now an

Good luck Odeo

2005-07-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

I wrote about the app Odeo a PodCasting service which I got to play with. I also wrote that it was written in Ruby On Rails which is what SimilarThings is written on. Then I see that Apple is adding PodCasting to its Itunes music service. This will be hard to compete with. Odeo does offer more services and it is mostly web-based so it has that going for it. I am sure it might even benefit them

Rest In Peace Chloe

2005-07-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

My Sweet, loving, cute Pembroke Welsh Corgie Chloe died today. She was put to sleep after having her kidneys fail. She was such a loving girl, my first kid. My ex-wife and I got her when we were living together before we were married about 11 years ago. Before my daughter was born. She lived a good life and was pampered a whole lot. I didn't get to see her much after the divorce because I

The difference between us and the Brits

2005-07-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

I heard on the news this morning on the way to work that a few mosques had been burned down in London as a response to the terrorist attacks. Maybe more than a few. Now, that is what is different about us and the Brits is something like that would never happen here. We are too PC, too sensitive to do something so brash. I am not saying it is a good thing to go around burning up mosques. I do see

Just because it looks cool, doesn't mean...

2005-07-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, now EtherTouch's 3D sensing interface looks cool but there is some serious UI suck going on here. For 1, who in the hell would want to move their arms around all day long while working on their computer? I get pissed when having to move away from my keyboard to my mouse when working hard. I am the king of keyboard shortcuts on my fav apps. About an hour of Photoshop and you would call it a

Ruby Red Grapefruit Ajax

2005-07-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

Courtenay from HABTM.com has some good pictures of some "Ruby Red Ajax" That is damn funny. Plus he has a nice howto on running a script from an Ajax call. I would like working with him on a project. He is a good guy and knows his shizat. Too bad I don't have him on board with SimilarThings.

Funny shit in LA

2005-07-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

I had to drive to UCLA today and a funny thing happened. When going under a bridge/tunnel on the freeway on the 405 everyone started honking including Semi's. I could see other drivers laughing and looking around while this was happening. Of course I had to participate with my whimpy horn which sounded more like some squeaky toy. However it was interesting to notice in such a normally shitty

SimilarThings Blog

2005-06-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

I started a blog for SimilarThings appropriately the url is Blog.SimilarThings.com so anyone who tries to grab that name, it's gone sorry :) This is where I will write about things I am working on and what is happening. Once the Mailing list gets active I will post what has been going on there too.

Odeo, another sweet Rails-driven app

2005-06-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

I have the pleasure of trying out Odeo a pod-casting tool for listeners and creators. I started surfing around the channels and found some good pod casts. I would like to create my own too some day so this tool will be all I need. Nice design, nice UI, nice app. Thanks to Rabble on #rubyonrails irc for hooking me up.

SimilarThings is Launched

2005-06-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

To much fanfair and applause(ok well none of either at least from anyone but me) SimilarThings.com is launched. I have announced it on the Rails list and on the IRC channel where quite a few fellow RoRer's helped find some bugs. Which I fixed a couple. I am sure there will be more. And the always helpful and bad-assed Rails programmer Courtenay helped me out and even posted a nice "slug" creator

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish

2005-06-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

This is so relevant to me right now. I needed to read this. You've got to find what you love

SimilarThings is coming along(slowly)

2005-06-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

I am pretty proud of what I have done with it so far. The more I use it (since the main site uses the app) the more I think people will like it. I have some signup issues to fix. Once they are done I am going to launch even though it needs some things done and is missing a couple features. Following the Release Early Release Often principle it is almost time. I am sure there will be some glaring

Bryan is a dad

2005-06-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

My friend Bryan Bell is now a proud father to Emily Bell. Congratulations and it's about damn time! :) Life will not be the same, in a good way.

My Mantra

2005-06-01T12:43:00.000-07:00

This is good stuff: Taste for Makers

More Backpack goodness

2005-05-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

While paroosing the random backpack pages I came accross this cool backpack hacks backpack. Although I am not sure using it as a mailing list subscription is a good idea. I like Backpacks send to from email. I might have to try that out on similarthings.com... Someday. But with Rails, things like that aren't too hard to implement.

Related Tags and Sub-Selects

2005-05-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

I am using a query to fetch related tags to an object. It seemed fast enough but then again, I am the only one using the system right now. Court3nay from habtm.com wrote a good article as to why my way sucked and how to make it better. So here is what I ended up with:In my application controller I created a helper_method that found all items using the tag in question: items = Item.find_by_sql("

SimilarThings.com

2005-05-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

I am near completion on my personal project. There are a couple of things left to do before I finish the first version of my rails app. I hope people will like it. I am not sure if I am going to open-source it. I still haven't figured out how/if I will end up selling the domain versions. Either way people will be able to create free sites. You will have your own subdomain of similarthings.com so

First looks at Backpack

2005-04-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

I have the golden ticket! I have the golden ticket! Those dudes are marketing geniuses. Anyway I am able to play with Backpack. It is pretty cool, it lets you organize a ton of things. There are some things missing from it though. It has no categorization which I think is pretty important. It uses the concept of pages to organize things which is a good metaphor, wink wink nudge nudge. I wish I

lego programming

2005-04-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

I just realized most other programming languages(ahem php) without good frameworks are like Legos. You can probably build anything with Lego's, one block at a time, piece-by-piece. But I would rather use the proper tools and materials. They are engineered for specific parts of the system, they are smart. Using them is smart.

Ruby Ruby Ruby, where art thou syntax?

2005-04-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

Jeez, just when I think I am getting the hang of it I see this: if layout ||= active_layout and action_has_layout? WTF? Thanks to the help of some friendly fellas on the Rails list who pointed me to the Ruby Idioms Page and using irb to test it I was able to figure it out. Let me break it down for you: "if layout ||=" means if layout is nil assign the next variable to layout, what about the and..

Just when I thought I was original

2005-04-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a CMS in rails as I have written about in this blog. Some of the concepts have been actually created (albeit for other functionality) in 2 different Rails Applications, Elements and Snippets all I can say is FUCK!. Now the whole tagging metaphor isn't new see: TagSurf, Flickr, my favorite - Del.Icio.Us (which is the inspiration for my idea). However the naming of my cms is

Hackers and Painters or Pastry Chefs?

2005-04-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

Maciej Cegłowski(Damn that hurt to spell) has written a good counter to Paul Graham's Hackers and Painters. Now I really like reading most of Paul's essays but I do think grouping painters and hackers isn't quite accurate. Although I haven't read the book so there might be a different meaning to the whole analogy.

Some Rails Performance Nums

2005-04-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

Now, this is impressive. I would like to use Lighthttpd on TextDrive. I hope those guys can hook me up. I am not having much luck with Apache over there plus the performance diff is a big reason.

Thinking about created a rails recipes site

2005-03-30T12:37:00.000-08:00

I think it would be cool to start a rails recipes site kind of like ZopeLabs but for rails. I remember when learning Zope I used that place a lot and posted a lot of cool things I found.If I could find a good host (maybe my workplace) I would do it.

Sometimes I wonder...

2005-03-29T13:31:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wonder why I don't go out and do these things I find funny. Then I realize I just lived it in my head so there is no reason to actually do it.

Backpack Bet

2005-03-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

I bet it is going to be a document/file manager of sorts. Maybe with tag-based sharing or viewing between users... What do you think?

Backpack Betting pool

2005-03-23T10:03:00.000-08:00

I am trying to start a betting pool on what we think Backpack is going to be over in #rubyonrails IRC. So far no takers. I am sure the fellas at 37 Signals Have something slick up their sleeves. I don't mean from a nasty cold either... I will post my guess after I hear a few suggestions.

I’ve been workin on the railroad

2005-03-21T13:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, on part v0.1.2 of my working with rails series I am going to talk about the other scattered but important parts of rails that you will need to know. Unless you are one of those people who just follows instructions and doesn’t care about the why. If so, exit stage right… Once you get past your todo list or recipe app, you may want to create a “real” application of sorts. For me, it is a CMS.

A good testimonial to doing Test Driven Development

2005-03-18T19:13:00.000-08:00

I have a book on it, I know how to do it, but I haven't done it yet. I know I need to start because once I become accustomed to it, I will probably do it all the time on projects. Either way, here is a good example of the why in TDD Hard to find bugs Episode #23221

My First XMLHTTPRequest appish thing

2005-03-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

What I wanted to do was create a dynamic list that can be used on my Rails CMS. Basically I wanted it to have top-level items and when clicked would use XMLHTTPRequest to call a script on the server that would return all the items sub-items and created a nested unordered list. That way only the data you wanted to see would be called when clicked and you could stylize it using css so it can look

UCFC Cage Fighting

2005-03-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

I am currenty looking for some VC and people with television series experience. I am going to start a new sport UCFC Cage Fighting. UCFC stands for Ultimate Chimp Fighting Championships. Man Vs. Chimp. After the chimp incident nearby my hometown, I realized this could be a goldmine.

I am going to write a new framework

2005-03-02T13:17:00.000-08:00

Sometime this month I will be writing a new framework. It will be called "Ale's" Getting Rolling With Ale's. I will drink 12 bottles of Young's fine beverages and start coding at about 1AM.

Ruby Syntax (things to remember)

2005-02-25T09:31:00.000-08:00

One that had me looking sideways like a puppy was what is called a symbol. Symbols are use quite a bit in rails and me being the whole-view-of-the-picture-or-I-just-don't-get-it kind of guy I had to understand what the hell they were. Here is an example of a symbol... :symbolName, or constantVar :symbolName. Here is how Introduction to Ruby for MacOSX describes them: Symbols are used to represent

Catching errors in rails

2005-02-21T14:37:00.000-08:00

For those times when users don't fill out their info correct. Here is how you can handle that in rails... First off read: Active Record API doc That will give you a good idea of what you can catch.Then to implement: In your model class add a validation check - validates_presence_of :description, :message => "is a required field!"In your controller class add a class instance var of what you are

Running with Rails

2005-02-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

I have just started messing with Rails and I like it a lot. I come from the following langs and platforms in order 1st - Usertalk, then to Python and Zope, then to C# in .net which was/is my favorite. However at my current job I can not program in C# for various reasons. Most of what we do here is in PHP and I do not like PHP. Sorry phpeeps, I don't. So I came accross rails and it rocks. So I am

Boring boring

2005-02-01T15:02:00.000-08:00

uh bored

IE Ping trickery

2005-01-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

OK, pings are cool mostly because of their alpha effects. But IE doesn't support them. Well, here is a hack using css and some other voodoo. First thing: Create an IE style append-er in your header - That little snippet will check to see if you are using IE and load an alternative stylesheet in

Pure CSS image rollover howto

2004-11-03T10:39:00.000-08:00

Link to article This works really well, I adapted it to the Advanced Mechanical template.

Trust me, it's all good!

2004-11-01T08:53:00.000-08:00

I wanna slap this person BelmontClub "He is basically saying if you leave us alone we will leave you alone." What an idiot. Yeah, lets listen to Osama, he just wants peace. Friggin retard. I can hear Wretchard now. "Poor misunderstood Charles Manson, he just wants to make music. If only someone would have signed him to a record label he would be an alright guy". I volunteer you Wretchard to go

Lessons Learned while watching the pre-election mayhem

2004-10-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Never take anything 60 minutes and CBSNews in general says as based on some reality. Kerry looks like a mummified corpse. The NYTimes is much like CBSNews. There's more but I don't feel like thinking about it right now.

Dave Wrecked his BMW

2004-10-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when driving too fast on recently-wet asphalt. It sickens me, at least he is alright. I know he will be sore tomorrow though. Update, what actually happened is his rear tire blew out and he lost control. He actually came into work about 2 hours later to tell us about it and take care of some things. He is my boss BTW

Here be the first post

2004-10-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Not much to say, just messin around.