Posts for 2008
- Specifying Environment Variables (Or How To Use Env In Your Shebangs) With mod_fcgid
I recently switched from using a cluster of Mongrels on my Rails staging server to using FastCGI on Apache 2 with mod_fcgid installed. One thing that bugged me is that my dispatch.fcgi file would trigger the infamous Application Error: Rails application failed to start properly if I did not hardcode the path to my Ruby interpreter in the shebang of the script (e.g., the first line of the file appearing like:
...#!/opt/local/bin/ruby). I prefer to use the env program (e.g., the first line of the file appearing like#!/usr/bin/env ruby) so that my scripts are (fairly) portable across platforms where interpreters are located in different locations. - 2005 MINI Cooper Lug Bolt Torque Specifications
I had another flat tire today. Skip to the bottom if you just need information on the lug bolts BMW uses on the 2005 MINI Cooper. Or, read ahead to hear how difficult it was for me to find this information on the Internet! Anyways, as always, the tire pressure sensor indicator lit up before I knew anything was wrong. I carefully drove into a parking lot, took out the tire pressure gauge I carry in the trunk and measured 16 psi. Note to those of you who do not regularly check your tire pressures: the tire should measure 30 psi (when cool not after being driven) and it did not visibly look flat nor even low on air.
... - Accepted Into The iPhone Developer Program
Finally! I have been working on an iPhone application with the company that one of my mentor's (I hope he'll let me call him that) started. We applied to the iPhone Developer Program a while back but were not accepted into the initial batch of developers. That could have been a blessing in disguise. We have learned a thing or two from watching some of the first application developers make mistakes with pricing, execution, and simply having to deal with Apple's SDK.
... - A Little Social Network Rant
If you know me, you are probably familiar with my stance on Facebook. In fact, I probably was the person that urged you to join that social network just shortly before it exploded in popularity (at least here in Toronto). You were most likely puzzled when I quit more than a year ago. Today, most people look at me like a luddite when I tell them I'm not on Facebook. Certainly, I feel like those people that still don't own a cellphone. To say I'm outnumbered is an understatement.
... - Too True
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- The Last Lecture
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- Bye Bye Battery
My MacBook Pro is now on its 3rd battery. I bought the computer in November 2006 and this past summer, I brought it into the Genius Bar at Eaton Centre because my battery was lasting barely 2 hours. It had gone past 150 charge cycles and was less than 2500 mAh. So the Genius gave me a new battery. Today, my computer is out of warranty, but I decided to bring it into the Genius Bar anyway. I kind of expect a laptop battery to last at least a year (preferably two). But my replacement was on its last legs. It was at 1800 mAh at full capacity and my computer could barely operate for 40 minutes on battery power.
... - Sweet MacBook Cases
Surfing the web today looking for a new credit card and business card case, I happened to stumble upon the website (and blog) of Calder Originals, a maker of high quality notebook (as well as guitar and violin) cases. Their designs are sophisticated and make the "design" of typical notebook case bags look downright kitschy. I'm sure these will be a hit among well-heeled executives. The prices are just a bit out of my budget right now. But hey, some things are totally worth saving up for. The case depicted below was purpose-built for the new MacBook Air. But as these are custom built-to-order, it appears they can accommodate all types of notebooks.
... - Always Do The Opposite Of What This Guy Says
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- The Apple Human Interface Guidelines
It was created in 1992, has been continually updated the past 16 years and is now 402 pages in length. Apple's HIG, short for Human Interface Guidelines, is unique amongst technical documents in that it is seemingly referenced equally as often by application developers on the Mac OS platform as by regular users. Ask a Windows user if the application they're currently using, say FireFox, adheres to basic Windows application design guidelines and you'll be met with a blank stare. Ask a Mac user the same question, and a significant many will sound off about just how poorly (in the case of FireFox) the application adheres to the Mac HIG. But don't take my word for it. Googling for the terms "FireFox Mac look and feel" yields many articles discussing the issue. FireFox developers have even gone out of their way with the latest version of the application to address Mac user's look and feel concerns specifically.
... - News Anchor And Reporter Fight On Air
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- Do The Test
A short link-and-run for today's post. Check out this ad from the United Kingdom. I'm impressed!
... - The Website Of A Company Whose Stock Price Is $139,000 Per Share
Yes, you read that correctly. Berkshire Hathaway's current share price is $139,000. And this is Berkshire Hathaway's website. If you view source on some of the pages, then you will see that, yes, it appears to have been created with Frontpage 3.0! Let's hope that this is one practice people don't look up to Warren Buffett for, or people like me will soon be out of work.
... - Microsoft Home Server Ad Campaign
I usually rag on Microsoft's marketing efforts. They're such low hanging fruit. But even a stopped clock is correct twice a day. Microsoft's recent Home Server marketing campaign is absolutely hilarious and whoever is responsible for it should be promoted (or if it is an agency the contract extended). Rather than ruin the campaign with useless blog commentary, just check out some of these highlights, or see the whole thing yourself.
... - Microsoft Bids On Yahoo
The most perplexing issue about Microsoft's takeover bid for Yahoo is what will happen to all of Yahoo's architecture after the fact? This just does not sound like it will go down well because I can't think of two companies with such diametrically-opposing views on just about every single part of their architecture. I suspect that Microsoft will concede defeat on the issue of running Windows and will allow Yahoo to continue using FreeBSD and the wealth of open source development tools currently in use. They already let Facebook do the same. Yet if this scenario plays out, it'll be a very unsavoury proposition for Microsoft to have to live with from a marketing standpoint - a huge chunk of their own company using, even thriving under a completely non-Microsoft ecosystem. Microsoft could try to spin this by saying that Yahoo's current efforts have failed and it's time to transition over to Microsoft software. But this is highly unlikely given the extreme amount of infrastructure in place. This ain't no Hotmail. If there is a transition, it will be lengthy and unwieldy. It will mean time lost re-inventing the wheel rather than competing with Google which defeats the purpose of this whole acquisition in the first place. I know that this deal looks quite sane from a high level business sense, but I can't help but think this thing is a lot of short term jockeying by Ballmer to be seen as doing something at the expense of longer term success.
... - A Lesson in Perseverance from Ferrari
One of the perks of being in a supporting series for a Formula One race is that, hell, it's Formula One! It means that after your actual race, you get to watch even faster cars zip around the circuit. It's like dessert! F1 being what it is, their teams get track precedence over all others regardless of who is on track. That means during a Formula Ford race, a car might enter the pits only to find that he has to wait to get to his pit area because a Ferrari is being slowly pushed down pit lane to the scrutineers.
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