Pineapple 'n Ham

Gems Gems everywhere!

2008-06-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

Today, I set out to upgrade my MacBook Pro to a full fledged dev machine. For this, I added XCode Tools and about a dozen 10 Ruby gems plus ImageMagick which proved to be a bit hairy.

Here we go...

Last login: Fri Jun 27 22:14:41 on console
Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ sudo gem install RubyInline
Updating metadata for 528 gems from http://gems.rubyforge.org/
...............................................................................complete
Successfully installed rubyforge-1.0.0
Successfully installed hoe-1.6.0
Successfully installed RubyInline-3.7.0
3 gems installed
Installing ri documentation for rubyforge-1.0.0...
Installing ri documentation for hoe-1.6.0...
Installing ri documentation for RubyInline-3.7.0...
Installing RDoc documentation for rubyforge-1.0.0...
Installing RDoc documentation for hoe-1.6.0...
Installing RDoc documentation for RubyInline-3.7.0...

Cool, 3 birds with 1 stone.

Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ gem install log4r
Successfully installed log4r-1.0.5
1 gem installed
Installing ri documentation for log4r-1.0.5...
Installing RDoc documentation for log4r-1.0.5...
Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ gem install dsl_accessor

Successfully installed activesupport-2.1.0
Successfully installed dsl_accessor-0.1.0
2 gems installed
Installing ri documentation for activesupport-2.1.0...
Installing ri documentation for dsl_accessor-0.1.0...
Installing RDoc documentation for activesupport-2.1.0...
Installing RDoc documentation for dsl_accessor-0.1.0...

Cool, 2 birds with 1 stone.

Next, i installed google-geocode but it turns out I didn’t need it so I uninstalled it (Murali ;-) ).

Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ gem install google-geocode
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError)
    You don't have write permissions into the /usr/bin directory.
Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ sudo gem install google-geocode
Password:
Successfully installed ZenTest-3.10.0
Successfully installed rc-rest-2.2.1
Successfully installed google-geocode-1.2.1
3 gems installed
Installing ri documentation for ZenTest-3.10.0...
Installing ri documentation for rc-rest-2.2.1...
Installing ri documentation for google-geocode-1.2.1...
Installing RDoc documentation for ZenTest-3.10.0...
Installing RDoc documentation for rc-rest-2.2.1...
Installing RDoc documentation for google-geocode-1.2.1...
Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ sudo gem uninstall google-geocode
Successfully uninstalled google-geocode-1.2.1
Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ sudo gem uninstall zentest
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::InstallError)
    Unknown gem zentest->= 0
Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ sudo gem uninstall ZenTest

You have requested to uninstall the gem:
ZenTest-3.10.0
rc-rest-2.2.1 depends on [ZenTest (>= 3.4.2)]
If you remove this gems, one or more dependencies will not be met.
Continue with Uninstall? [Yn]  n
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::DependencyRemovalException)
    Uninstallation aborted due to dependent gem(s)
Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ sudo gem uninstall rc-rest
Successfully uninstalled rc-rest-2.2.1
Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ sudo gem uninstall ZenTest
Successfully uninstalled ZenTest-3.10.0
Remove executables:
autotest, multiruby, multiruby_setup, rails_test_audit, unit_diff, zentest

in addition to the gem? [Yn]  Y
Removing autotest
Removing multiruby
Removing multiruby_setup
Removing rails_test_audit
Removing unit_diff
Removing zentest

A quick visual check…

Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ gem list

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

actionmailer (2.0.2, 1.3.6)
actionpack (2.0.2, 1.13.6)
actionwebservice (1.2.6)
activerecord (2.0.2, 1.15.6)
activeresource (2.0.2)
activesupport (2.1.0, 2.0.2, 1.4.4)
acts_as_ferret (0.4.1)
capistrano (2.0.0)
cgi_multipart_eof_fix (2.2)
daemons (1.0.7)
dnssd (0.6.0)
dsl_accessor (0.1.0)
fastthread (1.0)
fcgi (0.8.7)
ferret (0.11.4)
gem_plugin (0.2.2)
highline (1.2.9)
hoe (1.6.0)
hpricot (0.6)
libxml-ruby (0.3.8.4)
log4r (1.0.5)
mongrel (1.0.1)
needle (1.3.0)
net-sftp (1.1.0)
net-ssh (1.1.2)
rails (2.0.2, 1.2.6)
rake (0.8.1, 0.7.3)
RedCloth (3.0.4)
ruby-openid (1.1.4)
ruby-yadis (0.3.4)
rubyforge (1.0.0)
rubygems-update (1.1.1)
RubyInline (3.7.0)
rubynode (0.1.3)
sqlite3-ruby (1.2.1)
termios (0.9.4)

Carry on…

Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ sudo gem install image_science
Password:
Successfully installed image_science-1.1.3
1 gem installed
Installing ri documentation for image_science-1.1.3...
Installing RDoc documentation for image_science-1.1.3...
Macintosh-2:RailsProjects roupen$ 

Time for ImageMagick.

See this go to section about Mac OS X binary release.

Download ImageMagick-universal-apple-darwin9.3.0.tar.gz and copy to /Users/roupen or somewhere permanent because you’re going to point environment variables to here.

tar xvfz ImageMagick-universal-apple-darwin9.3.0.tar.gz
rm ImageMagick-universal-apple-darwin9.3.0.tar.gz

You should see a new dir /Users/roupen/ImageMagick-6.4.1

Next, set some env variables

export MAGICK_HOME="$HOME/ImageMagick-6.4.1"
export PATH="$MAGICK_HOME/bin:$PATH"
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="$MAGICK_HOME/lib"

Run a quick test to make sure ImageMagick is working

Macintosh-2:~ roupen$ cd
Macintosh-2:~ roupen$ pwd
/Users/roupen
Macintosh-2:~ roupen$ convert
Version: ImageMagick 6.4.1 06/12/08 Q16 http://www.imagemagick.org
Copyright: Copyright (C) 1999-2008 ImageMagick Studio LLC

UPDATE

I had some problems getting RMagick going – the issue is well covered in discussions on the web. So I backed away from installing image_magic and then the rmagick gem separately. I deleted the image_magic directory and well rmagick never installed.

The NEW path that paid off is described here using rmagick-osx-installer. Search for How do I install RMagick on OS X? on this page for details.

As described in the README for the rmgaick_osx_installer, I first installed XCode Tools and X11SDK off the MacBook Pro DVD. After that, I installed the script and it took a while but it was very uneventful.

libpng was installed successfully
libjpeg was installed successfully
ghostscript was installed successfully
ghostscript-fonts-std was installed successfully
FreeType was installed successfully
libwmf was installed successfully
ImageMagick was installed successfully
RMagick was installed successfully
Removing rm_install_tmp directory...Done

I think I am done. The convert test passed.

Macintosh-2:rm_install-1.1.1 roupen$ convert
Version: ImageMagick 6.4.2 06/28/08 Q8 http://www.imagemagick.org
Copyright: Copyright (C) 1999-2008 ImageMagick Studio LLC

I got real close to using MacPorts for this last step but didn’t (felt heavy handed).

Payo who?

2008-06-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, a horrible customer service experience comes around that redefines for me what bad customer service actually is. Over the last 24 hours, I have been experiencing just that with Payoneer.com. I set out to transfer some funds (sub $1k) from here to an offshore location using their service. On this end, I am using a credit card.

The only way to reach these people is via chat support on their site where you wait time can vary from a few minutes to half an hour. The help you get over chat is robotic at best. You try calling their main number and "press-2" gets you to support which after telling you to go online actually dead-ends and the call drop right after they tell you to leave a message. You "press-3" to reach sales. Well, yesterday, I left a voice message and no one called back of course. Today, it too was dropping the call. There is no one to talk to.

Finally, it came down to them asking me to FAX over a copy of my drivers license and a copy of the back and front of the credit card I am using (as to why they wanted this is a whole other story of course). This came after I got an email yesterday telling me that the transaction was approved. Today, they decided they needed more "documentation".

Ok, so where do I send it to? They gave me 2 fax numbers non of which worked. Finally, they had the audacity to ask me to scan the 3 pages and send it in. Meanwhile, I had an unpleasnt call with one support rep. And an unpleasant chat with another. WOW! A horrible customer service experience.

I had to use these guys but if you ever have a choice, avoid this one.

S3 the way to go for backups...

2008-06-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

So I'm still a newb with all this web app dev stuff. One of the many worries as we get ready to deploy a real app - with real customer data - is backups.After hashing it over with Suren and Murali and talking with the hosting provider (ServerPoint - who so far haven't been very helpful, so may be x-provider soon).

My spiritual adviser at SpeedyRails, Maykel Rodriguez suggested S3 and he has the data to prove it.

For example, if you transfer 100MB every day to amazon s3, that's 3GB of data transfer-in per month, and then 3GB of storage (considering you only keep one month of backups), let's say you download 1GB per month as well and you have a total of 1000 requests (many http get/post requests)... this is... only 0.93 USD per month! LOL ... pretty cheap eh?

Here, do the math using the S3 cost calculator.

$0.93 BRILLIANT! EUREKA!

Wazup up with eFax lately?

2008-06-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

eFax is one of the very-very first "free" services that I remember coming across in my early days with the internet. So we are talking 10+ years.

It was always a paid and a free model. I signed-up for a free version and got a number. Who uses FAX these days anyway, you ask? I don't receive much but having school-aged kids, they receive homework and stuff from friends now and then...

So I guess this pre-Web 1.0 fixture must be having monitization issues because I have been getting some random emails from them in the last couple of months trying to get me to upgrade. First, it was "hey, your number is changing" GREAT! Its still customary to have a FAX number of business cards and I have used my eFAX number for years. Thanks eFAX! Today, it was an email saying I have received 45 pages in the last 90 days and that I am violating my service agreement.

First, I understand a company has to monitize but is this the best way to go around it with a 10+ year user? Second, in this day and age of VOIP and ad models, isn't there some other ways that eFAX can monitize?

I think I am going to look for an alternative service or just stop including a FAX number in my coordinates. As for the kids, we have an traditional FAX number attached to the phone line, they can start to use that...

UPDATE: I got (yet) another email from eFAX today that I violated their terms of use, yadi yada. This time, I called the sales number in the email (oy vey!). After some classical music, some perky lady answered and after asking for my eFax number she kept reminding me that they have NO infomration about my account (because its free). So then why am I getting these notices? She had no idea. Bottom line: wait until June 25, your old number will expire and we will issue a new one. Ha? That's it? thats it... According to her, they are trying to recover number because they are short (443 area codes? hm, ok). To me, this is just bully-spam to get people to upgrade. Shame on eFAX.

Smoother than expected

2008-05-17T18:42:00.000-07:00

I just got around to upgrading my MacBook Pro to Rails 2.0.2 and the experience was smoother than expected. I figured something was going to blow-up somewhere but it all went smooth. I followed the 4 steps outlined here.

sudo gem update --system
sudo gem install rails
sudo gem update rake
sudo gem update sqlite3-ruby

Step 3 reported that it had nothing to update. Step 4 likewise. I don't use sqlite so I probably did'nt need to do the last step but I did for completeness.

David updated textbull to run on 2.0.2 so it was time to upgrade. I'm now merging Purnima's code in.

Firefox and gmail not happy

2008-04-14T15:16:00.001-07:00

Firefox and gmail not happy
Originally uploaded by roupen

I been using my MacBook Pro happily for the last few months including Firefox 2.0 and Gmail. A couple of days ago, gmail stopped working with Firefox on my machine.

I tried clearing cookies and even reinstalled firefox but the problem wont go away. So for now, I am using Safari to read my gmail, which is not bad but its no firefox :(

Update: I upgraded to FF3 Beta and the problem went away (thanks to Noam for the suggestion). I lost a few plugins along the way that weren't compatible with FF3 but oh well.

My unintentional hike

2008-04-12T15:37:00.001-07:00

So at 3PM Friday I had an appointment to go see an oral surgeon referred by my regular dentist to pull out a wisdom tooth whose time had come. The address I was trying to get to was something California Ave in San Francisco. So I Google mapped it and decided to BART. HAH!

I landed at Montgomery street BART - the city was brilliant and sunny. The Google map showed a few blocks on California from Montgomery - no sweat. I was even a half hour early for my 3PM appointment. So I turned on California and noticed the addresses were 300-something hah, I was trying to get ot 3500-something. O-oh. So Google maps was wrong, clearly. I was trying to get to the corner of Spruce and California. I asked a cab driver and he said "couple of miles". So I figured I have time and let me hike it - its a beautiful day. What I didn't take into account is the UPHILLS of San Francisco - haha. Up towards Mason I will breathing from every orafesus on my body. An hour later, I made my way to my destination half hour late. I must have hiked about 40 blocks. The good news is that taking the wisdom tooth out was a breeze!

Teen influence

2008-04-06T21:31:00.001-07:00

My teen influencing my musical taste days.

Wow - scam-lightening strikes twice

2008-03-26T10:40:00.001-07:00

My trusty Sony Cybershot of 3-4 years finally died. So I've been in the market for a new digital still camera. This post is about a couple of internet scams that I have ran into not once - but twice.

Update: I got a box from FotoConnection.com yesterday. I called them today to confirm what was in the box before opening it. They assured me they had sent a rechargeable unit. Against my gut instinct, I opened the box and sure enough, its NOT!. After an irate call with them. I am filling out the RMA. Looking forward to the call to AMEX to dispute the 15% restocking fee. What slime balls!

After looking around for deals at Costco for a new camera, I decided to go online. Checked-in at Sony Style and then did a Google search. The first match that Google returned was FotoConnection.com. So I went online and placed an order.

The next day, I got an email asking me to call some 800 number for "security" reasons. So I called and I found myself talking to a character from The Sopranos with background noise of a some boiler room operation somewhere (I'm guessing) in New York. So the guys goes on into a high pressure up-sell. It turns out that the device that I bought has some 15 minute battery and an overnight charger (meaning it slow charges) that they have put in after market.

The "buttons" for this suit were going to cost an extra $80 (reference to the saying "Oh, you want buttons with the suit?"). When I told the guy to cancel the order, the price kept dropping and dropping to $14. I kept getting random emails from this outfit for another week directing to some site for security verification.

So I then went back on and this time looking for another Cybershot and found another outfit PreferredPhoto.com. And guess what? The same process started repeating. When I asked the guy on the phone if they were associated with FotoConnection.com he claimed no knowledge. So I canceled the order again.

Wow. Talk about bait and switch plus-plus slime. Yuk! A horrible experience. DEFINITELY AVOID!

Net scammers remind me of ants...

2008-03-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

My trusty Sony Cybershot of 3-4 years finally died. So I've been in the market for a new digital still camera. This post is about a couple of internet scams that I have ran into not once - but twice.

A week or so ago I posted an ad on Facebook Marketplace about a license for e-Text for Windows that I wanted to sell. This was the only response I got super late last night and I was excited (someone wants to buy it). The English in the post sounded a bit strange but I didn't pay much attention so I game my email.

Then came the hook - this morning I got an email that said the person is OWED money in the U.S. (not Uganda, as those email scams oft say) and that the cashier's check would be sent to me. I would deduct $25 for the item plus a $40 bonus ;-) and to mail the balance as a check.

What is fascinating here is... first, they have latched on Facebook... second, using Marketplace as the entry (Facebook should add glaring warnings like Craigslist to warn people about such scams -- I didn't think anything of it at first (because, hey, its Facebook)... third, the amounts involved are small enough $25 + $40. My guess is that the fake cashier's check was going to be for under $1k.

So word to the wise... avoid this Kyle Fischer email f_ang_17_23@yahoo.com

The Leopard, the Noob and MySQL

2008-03-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

After much waiting, I go another Macbook Book Pro last week. The machine has 2.4GHz Intel core 2 Duo 2GB RAM 200GB HD and is running Max OS X v 10.5.2. Thanks to Carlos for pitching in the F&F Apple Discount (obrigado muito). After moving documents off the Vaio, next came the decision - to buy or not to buy Microsoft Office. I downloaded OpenOffice for Mac but my experience was so-so. Every time I launched OpenOffice, an X11 console window would pop-up (and an icon would appear in the Doc yuk). Moreover, OpenOffice would timeout (apparently waiting for X11 to start) and then things would work Ok. I read up on it and it turns out this is an issue with OpenOffice and Max OS X until the native version due out "later this year". My faith shaken, I went ahead and ordered MS Office online... Luckly, the following day, Suren clued me on NeoOffice and it is just perfect. So I canceled my order so I am still 100% MS free.

Next came the Rails environment. If you're into Raisl and Leopard, you know that Ruby, Rails, Mongrel, Sqlite3 and SVN come pre-installed with Leopard. Its all good and it all worked out of the box. HOWEVER, I wanted to get on MySQL since the others I am collaborating with on a project are also on it... This is where things got interesting.

First, the question was -- which version to install? Answer: Go with v 5.0.51a MySQL 5.0 Community Server - GA release. There is an alpha of version 5.2 and 6.0 but I opted for the GA (Generally Available) release.

The release comes with two packages: 1) mysql-5.0.51a-osx10.5-x86.pkg this is the server 2) MySQLStartupItem.pkg this is a bit which along with MySQL.perfPane that comes in the installation (disk image as its called) allows you to start and stop the server from a graphic interface. This is when the plot thickened.

The first package (server) installed without incidents. I was able to tickle the server using the following command line commands:

shell> cd /usr/local/mysql shell> sudo ./bin/mysqld_safe (ENTER YOUR PASSWORD, IF NECESSARY)(PRESS CONTROL-Z) shell> bg (PRESS CONTROL-D OR ENTER "EXIT" TO EXIT THE SHELL)

Meanwhile, I had been reading blogs and forum posts on the subject and it was becoming clearer that something was up with MySQL and Leopard (people talking about stuff not starting and not being installed properly) I soon found out.The time to install the second package (MySQLStartupItem) which I did and it went ahead through the usual installer wizard steps and congratulated me on a successful installation. But when I tried to use the Startup Item to start MySQL using the command below it was no dice.

shell> sudo /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM/MySQLCOM start

It turns out there is nothing under /StartupItems Gaah! The package installs /MySQLCOM under /usr/local/ go figure.

After much reading and pocking around, I came across bug 25008 on the MySQL site. The bug was first opened 12 Dec 2006 (title: Mac OS X's StartupItem does not work) and has been alive since. On Feb 7, 2008, 7 one Andrew Lindley reported the identical problem to mine.

After a few exchanges with one Mattias Jonsson, it turns out that a fix is to 1) move the MySQLCOM directory to the right place 2) Install and use a corrected MySQL.prefPane

However, if you are a newb like me, you may have trouble with the "mv" command. Thanks to Mattias, the correct syntax for this is

sudo mv /usr/local/MySQLCOM /Library/StartupItems/

The other newb thing I couldn't do is add usr/local/mysql/bin to my bash shell PATH so that I could start mysqladmin from the command line. Everything I read assumed that I knew where the said profile file needs to go. So the right thing to do here is create a .bash_profile file under /Users/ Many thanks to Jeff McLeman for guiding me through this.

The contents of the .bash_profile file as follows:

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin
MANPATH=$MANPATH:/usr/local/mysql/man

The last newb thing I had to figure out is where/what the "Perf Panel" is that you're supposed to use to start/stop the server. Again, thanks to Mattias, it turns out that this is nothing more than good 'ol "System Preferences". If all went well, launch it and you should see a MySQL icon under "Other". See?

Picture 1
Originally uploaded by roupen

So moral of the story :) In 10+ years since I used Unix little has changed in the once analogy I read about Unix in an article title "if airlines were operating systems" . Its still a lot of hacking, haggling, heckling and friends helping friends. In the end, it all worked out and its all open source and $FREE$. Yey!.

Rock 'n Ruby (on Rails)

2008-03-08T23:30:00.001-08:00

Strata @ Sweet's Ballroom :: 09/02/06
Originally uploaded by evolofoto

Met Hrag C, guitarist with Strata, seen here. We're collaborating on textbull.com with Chris, Purnima, and Goerge. An all-volunteer weekend startup army. After a few year touring, Hrag is back in the area going back to finish school. In addition to music, Hrag does front end web dev and is getting into Ruby like the rest of the army.

How much longer?

2008-02-29T11:08:00.001-08:00

fixes
Originally uploaded by roupen

It's been about 48 hours since Flickr stopped showing updates to contact's photos. How much longer I wonder.

Update: 2/29/08 5:22PM Just noticed that this is now fixed.

100,004 views 2,759 pics

2008-02-28T13:55:00.001-08:00

100,004 alltime views 2,759 pics
Originally uploaded by roupen

As of this post, my Flickr stream has 100,004 views on 2,759 pictures. My YouTube with 95 videos is at 85,386 video views.

My wife still doesn't get why I share this stuff -- I'm not sure I have a scientific answer for why I do it either. Seeing the views go up has its own reward (is it a "vitamin" or a "pill" hmm).

Deeper into R-o-R

2008-02-16T15:15:00.000-08:00

After doing a few recipe projects, I've started working on a fresh idea from scratch with Chris Sargisov. It feels much like trying to go around the block without training wheels for the first time.

The project I'm trying to do (more on this later - when there is stuff to show) has quickly taken me down the path of polymorphic many-to-many relationships with Ruby Active Record. I'm getting my a** kicked but understanding it better with every error message - thanks for Eldon Alameda, again.

If you're also into HABTM, many-to-many, has_many :through then here are a few links that Eldon turned me on to that you might find as useful as I did:

Ryan Bate's Railscast Screencast
Josh Susser's blog
Gregg Pollack's screencast on ActiveRecord
Bala Paranj's RubyPlus Ruby and Rails screencasts

Drop me a line if you know of others...

My Ruby Arsinal

2008-02-08T22:01:00.001-08:00

A few friends have asked about the books I'm using on Ruby - here they are (in order purchased - thanks for Sanjay for one of the recommendations and to Alex for a couple others):

Practical Rails Projects by Eldon Alameda.
Programming Rails by Dave Thomas.
Practical Social Networking Sites by Alan Bradburne.
Agile Web Development with Rails by Dave Thomans and David Heinemeier Hanson.
Ruby Cookbook by Lucas Carlson and Leonard Richardson
Rails Cookbook by Rob Orsini

I bought the books on Amazon - half.com didn't seem to have a price advantage. I usually buy used in good conditions.

I also picked-up the following O'Reily Pocket References:

MySQL Pocket Reference
CSS Pocket Reference
PHP Pocket Reference

The Monkey's alive!

2008-02-06T12:21:00.001-08:00

live
Originally uploaded by roupen

What a trip! From buying my first book Jan 12 to an app deployed live as of this post - very cool. The last time I wrote code was 10 years ago after doing it for 10 years. The last time I wrote code was for embedded systems - not web.

I took a deep dive into Ruby on the 12th of January, 2008, and flintstoning.com is the end result. I'm proud ;-) What a difference a decade and the web have made when it comes to programming.

If not for the tireless help of Eldon Alameda, author of the book Practical Rails Projects. His code warrior instinct and patience are much appreciated. Also thanks to the good folks at SpeedRails.com and Maykel Rodriguez Rivero for providing the hosting and excellent and equally tireless support. Lastly, thanks for Suren for key hints along the way.

The app has a few cool things going for it. For one thing, some cool Ajax that allows for drag-and drop of todo items under "Today's Tasks" in the center of the page. Plus Chronic natural language time parsing (so when defining a task you could specify things like "tomorrow" "next month", etc. Very cool).

From newb to first app in less than 4 weeks. This has been fun!

Practically Rails

2008-01-26T11:51:00.000-08:00

I'm spending some time learning Ruby and Rails. The Web today belongs to those that can implement ideas (not just dream them). So I've been dusting off my OO and C++ knowledge which I hadn't used for about 10 years (it's all coming back pretty easily).

I've invested in a couple of books on the subject and one of them is Practical Rails Applications by Eldon Alameda from Apress. From time to time, I'm going to post typos, errata and other notes here as part of this journey.

~~Pg36: The index page that is produced for the today controller with Rails 2.0.2 is index.html.erb instead of index.rhtml The book references and older version.~~

~~Pg41: The text thats displayed at the end of script/plugin install acts_as_authenticated plugin looks like an error but its not (that part about acts_as being deprecated by restful_authentication).~~
~~Pg44: paragraph 3 "we're using it [to] call the login_from_cookie~~

Last night, I got as far as adding user registration and authentication (using the plug in acts_as_authenticated) in chapter 3 of the book. I ran into a few problems related to the mailer initialization. At the same time, I was tracking down a pesky layout issue on the login and signup pages, unrelated to the mailer issue, when I emailed the author, Eldon Alameda. Eldon responded right away and has been very helpful...

It turns out that the book was written based on Rails 1.2.3 while I was running 2.0 Among the changes is the ActionMailer initialization. So to keep moving forward, I decided to downgrade from InstantRails 2.0 back to InstantRails 1.7 and Rails 1.2.8 (close enough to 1.2.3). A lesson learned for being on the bleeding edge (Rails 2.0 was released late Dec - too new for my taste).

I am redoing the steps starting in Chapter 1.

Here's a trap I fell into a couple of times (the last time around, this was the fork in the road that took me down the path to upgrading to Rails 2.0 which proved problematic): You've just installed mongrel and you're all happy and snug and you do mongrel_rails start to see the fruits of your labor but you see this instead !!! Path to log file not valid: log/mongrel.log

Chances are, your mongrel is installed alright. The thing to remember is that mongrel_rails must run from within a rails app directory (if you use InstantRails and you haven't created a project of your own, go to cookbook or typo sample app directories and start mongrel there. Presto!

My current configuration: Ruby 1.8.6 Rails 1.2.3 mongrel 1.1 gem 0.9.2 rake 0.7.2 apache 1.3.33

A fly in my cloud-computing ointment

2008-01-25T09:13:00.000-08:00

So I've been happily using Gmail and Google Calendar (along with Google Docs) and enjoying my cloud computing bliss without Microsoft Office and Outlook.

Starting yesterday, however, Google Calendar has been acting-up for me on Firefox 2.0 running Windows XP. Note that the problem doesn't happen on IE (which I have also gave up on a while back).

The problem I am having is as follows - unfortunately - and this has rendered Google Calendar unusable under Firefox :(

I start Gmail and click on Calendar and the Ajax thing starts to happen... the lower left hand corner of the browser starts to show frantic activity (contacting google.com etc) and Firefox hour glass is there - all looks normal - EXCEPT I never come out of this state. Sometimes, I get the Calendar login screen often not. It just sits there...

I tried rebooting... restarting firefox... uh-ah, not working and that sucks!

Worse comes to worse, I am planning to move to an Apple MacBook soon and maybe/probably that will solve this issue. Just waiting for the new MacBook Pros with multi-touch...

Google Calendar not happning on FireFox from roupen nahabedian on Vimeo.

A Microsoft Moment sans Office & Outlook

2008-01-24T14:06:00.000-08:00

I was at a meeting over lunch yesterday when one of my Vaio laptops started acting-up; I'd turn it on, Windows (XP) would boot-up I'd login and after a minute or two the blue screen of death would flash and the laptop would reboot. This happened about 5-6 times - different boot options didn't seem to make a difference - I was having a "Microsoft Moment" (MM).

This seems to happen about once every 6 months that you have to take time off, drop what you're doing, and pay homage to the gods of software and fix the problem... Normally, a MM is enough to ruin your day - you don't know if your documents and email are safe (you think to yourself "am i ever going to see my email ever again?" or "my god - all that STUFF that I can't live without"). And of course, you could/should have backed-up the stuff but...

Luckily this time around, I am no longer using Office nor Outlook - I made the transition a couple of months ago and I haven't looked back. Also this time around, the stress was much lower: my stuff and majority of my documents are on gmail and Google docs respectively. Saved!

I remembered that this kind of crash had happened on this laptop about a year ago and the solution then was to reinstall from the factory CD and wipe everything out. So not only was my stress level much less but when it came down to doing a clean-install, the whole process took about 1/3 as long since there was so much less to copy off and copy back on (at last check, my Outlook file was about 10GB).

So! A Microsoft Moment made much less stressful and painful not having Outlook and Office to deal with. Next stop? Back to an Apple Powerbook not to deal with Windows at all.

Mayhem-5

2008-01-20T12:27:00.001-08:00

Mayhem-5
Originally uploaded by Almighty_Tuna

Ha? Watch me touch this mouse trap with my tongue... in the next photo, the trap closes on his tongue - ouch! The series gets worse, ending with people stapling dollar bills to his body (ha?)

DISCLAIMER: I came across this pic on a random walk on Flickr. I wasn't attending this event or anything.

mini-hack

2007-12-30T15:23:00.001-08:00

mini-hack
Originally uploaded by roupen

We brought two laptops with us and uncle-H had just purchased a laptop -- so there were 3 laptops plus free Wi-Fi from a neighbor. It looked like a mini-hackathon. Too bad they don't web programming yet ;-) soon I hope...

Google Docs... the way to go!

2007-11-28T15:34:00.000-08:00

After I don't remember how many years of being a Microsoft Office junky, I just completed the final step of weaning myself away from the habit. A habit for which I paid a heavy cost every time I migrated laptops not to mention the retail price tag for Microsoft Office...

A few weeks ago, I started using the MS-Word equivalent functionality in Google Docs. I thought to myself "ok, this is cool". But I always knew that power point was the hook that would bring me back to Office. Today, I put together my first 3 page presentation using Google Docs and it was an amazingly positive experience. Sure, it doesn't have animations, but then again, in this age of frugality of ideas, maybe I don't need it.

So I am sold! My migration to Google Docs is complete. A few weeks ago, I migrated all my email (about 65,000), contacts (about 2,000)and calendar to Gmail. The migration was a bit painful because I wanted my archives to be moved as well. Just then, Gmail released IMAP support which made the migration work though labor intensive. It was important to me to maintain the original chronology of the emails, which some solutions that I found wouldn't have done (because they mass forward your old emails to Gmail). Also, I found Labels in Gmail to be very effective for keeping the original folders structure that I had for keeping email organized...

viola! I am OFF Microsoft Office Yo! When a friend recommended Gmail and Google Docs about 6 months, it was unimaginable then...

I had me some ghapaman (finally)

2007-11-11T22:35:00.001-08:00

mmmm uncovered
Originally uploaded by roupen

Thanks for Sophie and Rouben Amirbekian , today I had the pleasure of tasting Ghapaman today. A traditional Armenian dish which I have heard about in songs but had never had. It basically a stuffed squash. In this case, stuffed with seafood and a chiopino-like delicious sauce. A side of white rice was provided that you stuffed into the squash as you ate the inside.

Kudos to Redwood City

2007-11-10T20:18:00.001-08:00

Voided!
Originally uploaded by roupen

Last month, I got a parking ticket in downtown Redwood City which I thought was unfair. So I wrote the parking folks a letter pleading my case. My wife said it was a waste of time. A few weeks later, I got a letter from the City saying that they agreed with me and I didn't have to pay the ticket! WOW! Meanwhile, fearing late fees, I had sent in a $25 check for the ticket. Today, I got the check back. Double WOW!

The City machinery working for its citizens ;-)

We are tracking...

2007-11-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

After only a little bit of futsing around, I added Google Analytics tracking to this Blogger blog thanks to this cool entry here

Smaller the better...

2007-11-07T09:30:00.001-08:00

Rent-a-wheels
Originally uploaded by roupen

My car is in the body shop for a minor fender-bender so I picked-up this PT Cruiser at Enterprise this morning on El Camino Real in Redwood City. The word among the 4-5 other renters that were there with me this morning was "smaller the better"... That's no surprises, I suppose, given that the average gallon of gas for 87 octane is $3.50 where I am.

I asked for smaller too and what I got is this. The rental agent helping was mileage conscious as well. The lot was full of large SUV's and trucks that no seemed to want...

Viral begot me a Virus...

2007-03-27T21:58:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks, I've put on my Marketing hat and have been working on user acquisition with a combination of viral and WoM (word of mouth) shoe-string plan. I've been testing the waters with text (IRC), pic (Flickr) and video (YouTube) viral marketing (using existing social networks to spread the word about a service) along with Google Analytics (thank God for GA). For the last week, I've been going to sleep dreaming about traffic and conversion numbers so much so that Friday night my throat started to scratch. As of this post, I have some sort of a VIRAL respiratory throat infection.

Sunday and Monday nights were hell. Every time I swallowed it felt like i was swallowing broken glass (to give you an idea). Tylenol PM, Theraflu, even good 'ol trusted NyQuil (which would knock me out into a bliss) didn't do any good. toss and turn toss and turn. Plus fever, plus chills, etc. Tonight, its less fever, less soar throat but more classical runny nose and sporadic deep coughing. I took NyQuil and an hour into it, nada - i am not knocked out - i am writing this blog entry. Sigh!

Pride...

2007-03-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

For the first time in life as a parent, I got to experience the joy of accomplishment with my eldest son Aram. Today, we received letters from two of the high schools that he had applied to. He has been accepted to both: Serra High School in San Mateo, and Saint Ignatius Preparatory in San Francisco both with distinction.

We're very proud and happy.

Next Step: Aram has to decide which one to attend.

Unintended consequences (the law of)

2007-03-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

I usually look forward to daylight savings. It usually signals the start of spring, warmer weather, etc. This year, of course, daylight savings came early on March 11 instead of the first week of April and since then, I've had a mini private IT disaster going on. I heard stories on the radio about Y2K-type preparations and thought "ya right". Was I wrong!

At first, I thought the worse part of this new daylight savings was that I had to change the clock on my laptop manually. That turned out to be the least of my headaches. For the last 5 days, the time on my Outlook calendar invites are reaching other people all messed-up though they look fine on my calendar. The people that I am sending the invites too are using Google Calendar (probably time for me to chuck Outlook as well). A couple of times, the clock on my laptop has revered back mysteriously and I had to reset it. Apparently, there is patch to Windows XP. However, for the last year, Windows Update has been causing me headaches with some Office update s that it has tried repeatedly to download and update. Finally, I turned Windows Update off and I don't even want to think about turning it back on to fix this daylight savings issue.

My fancy Windows Mobile Samsung Blackjack smartphone clock has been off as well. Yesterday, March 14 (3 days after daylight savings too effect) I got an SMS from Cingular about a patch that I need to download to fix the problem on my PDA. Whatever happened to notifying people AHEAD of the problem? Whatever happened to pushing such important updates onto these "smart" devices?

As of this post, both of these issues remain unresolved -- I've got much bigger fish to fry for now...

I love this tune...

2007-03-10T20:50:00.000-08:00

From the Bill Kill soundtrack...

I love the lyrics sung in Japanese...

Artist: Meiko Kaji Lyrics
Song: The Flower of Carnage Lyrics

Shindeita
Asa ni
Tomorai no
Yuki ga furu

Hagure inu no
Touboe
Geta no
Otokishimu

Iin na naomosa
Mitsumete aruku
Yami wo dakishimeru
Janomeno kasa hitotsu

Inochi no michi wo
Yuku onna
Namida wa tooni
Sutemashita

Furimuita
Kawa ni
Toozakaru
Tabinohima

Itteta tsuru wa
Ugokasu
Naita
Ame to kaze

Kieta mizu mo ni
Hotsure ga miutsushi
Namida sae misenai
Janomeno kasa hitotsu

Urami no michi wo
Yuku onna
Kokoro wa tooni
Sutemashita

Giri mo nasake mo
Namida mo yume no
Kinou mo ashita mo
Henno nai kotoba

Urami no kawa ni
Mi wo yudanete
Honma wa tooni
Sutemashita

Translation: The Flower of Carnage

Begrieving snow falls in the dead morning
Stray dog's howls and the footsteops of Geta pierce the air
I walk with the weight of the Milky Way on my shoulders
But an umbrella that holds onto the darkness is all there is.
I'm a woman who walks at the brink of life and death
Who's emptied my tears many moons ago.
All the compassion tears and dreams
The snowy nights and tomorrow hold no meaning
I've immersed my body in the river of venegance
And thrown away my womanhood many moons ago
On the behalf of heaven, they're our soldiers, the loyal, invincible and brave.
Now it's time for them to leave the country of their
Parents their hearts buoyed by encouraging voices.
They are solemnly resolved not to return alive, without victory.
Here at home, the citizens wait for you.
In foreign lands, the brave troops
Instead of kindness from someone
I do not care about
I rather prefer selifshness from you my beloved.
Oh, it the world a dream or an illusion?
I am all alone in jail.

[Thanks to dracir@rocketmail.com for lyrics]

Lets do the numbers...

2007-02-13T18:34:00.000-08:00

I plan to update this post with my flickr, youtube and MySpace numbers... daily for the next month... a snapshot taken at 7PM everyday.

I've been on flickr since May 2006; youtube since July 2006; MySpace since June 2006.

Feb 20, 2007 F: 12,849 YT: xxxxxx, MS: 151
Feb 20, 2007 F: 12,690 YT: 25,935 MS: 144
Feb 19, 2007 F: 12,621 YT: 25,800 MS: 142
Feb 18, 2007 I wasn't able to log numbers.
Feb 17, 2007 F: 12,479 YT: 25,493 MS: 136
Feb 16, 2007 F: 12,375 YT: 25,359 MS: 134
Feb 15, 2007 F: 12,313 YT: 25,202 MS: 130
Feb 14, 2007 F: 12,224 YT: 25,081 MS: 121
Feb 13, 2007 F: 12,037 YT: 24,937 MS: 116

...and w'ere running

2007-02-13T10:08:00.000-08:00

After a couple of months of getting to "get-to-know-you" with Hikkup, we're finally up and running in Redwood City, CA. We're all on the same page - inventors, investors and developers. We moved into an office at the end of last month.

Suren A. joined as dev lead and Noam L. as product manager for the next couple of months. Walter B joined the dev team also today.

It's taken longer than you'd think getting setup should take... we still don't have white boards - why do they cost so much anyhow? We've looked high and low, near and far - experimented with Plexiglas and wall coverings to no avail. Finally, it looks like we're going to pay $100 for a 4'x6'pre-owned board.

We're on target as far as defining the core scenarios... there are lots of questions on what people will use Hikkup for... we've started work on ways to get the word out...

"Tell someone what's on your mind and find out something about yourself"

Tel Aviv Bound... the next 28 hours

2006-11-18T08:09:00.000-08:00

The fight from San Francisco to Atlanta was uneventful… landed and made my way over to concourse E. The flight to Tel Aviv boarded on time – had to go through a second screening (luggage through scanner for security).

The flight was pretty full… I could hear English, Hebrew and Russian around me… the flight was an hour taking off… one of the intercom phones in the back of the plane wasn’t working on the Boeing 777… it’s a must fix per FAA rules.

We finally took off… doze off… wake-up… doze-off… life in coach. My TV controller was stuck in the armrest but the buttons worked… next to me were a young couple form Little Rock, Arkansas going on vacation… husband and wife were trying to make out Hebrew letters on the landing cards we got...

About 4 ours into the 11 hour flight… an announcement comes on… “we have a medical emergency on board, we have to divert to St. John’s island in Canada --- the eastern most of the Canadian islands on the Atlantic… oh great! In the galley about 3-4 rows in front of me I could see a pair of feet – someone was lying on the ground with a couple of guys and a flight attendant hovering over him—the man on the ground seemed to be sitting… He was an older gentleman… apparently was without pulse for a while… there were two doctors on board tending to him… If you’re going to have a medical emergency, might as well have it on a flight to Israel (Jewish doctors on board and lawyers too, if need be ).

The flight was over the Atlantic and had to turn around to drop the patient off. The plane dumped fuel then we landed in St. John’s as the sun rose over the island at around 7AM EST. We appeared to be the only plane in the airport as we taxied. A work crew paving part of the runway were all lined-up starring at our plane. Apparently, not too many 777’s land at St. John we later found out as the 50 minute planned refueling stop turned to 2 hours since the airport didn’t have the necessary stuff to refuel a 777 with and the fuel truck had to make multiple trips for the 85,000 pound fuel required… spoke to one of the flight attendants… she said this was the first international “drop off” she had been in… she mentioned that the cost (fuel and delay) was likely borne by the airline in case of emergencies like this…

We finally took off and continued our way to Tel Aviv…. More dozing on and off… watched Forrest Gump… the in flight entertainment wasn’t nearly as rich as the SF to Atlanta flight (with the live Dish Network in flight movies and music)… the last hour were brutal! Coach seat – luckily isle… tired… sleepy… cant read because my eyes are burning… I’m tired of the music on the iPod… patience… patience… AND THEN WE LANDED! Applauds and relief. It had been over 24 hours since I left the house but all is well that ends well. With planes there is always the worse case scenario – the ultimate disaster… a 5 hour delay was ok by comparison to that.

It took me an hour to clear passport control – my U.S. passport says “IRAQ” as my country of birth after 28 years of a one-way trip out of Iraq to California I still got some special attention… questioned about 3 times by different people about who/why/where/when of my visit. Everyone was cordial… they were doing what they have to do (these are tough times in a tough neighborhood)… I finally walked through passport control to be questioned again by (what I think) was customs. My luggage was there (phew! Not lost)… it was X-rayed and I was on my way. I had the whole of Ben Gurion International Airport. I got into a taxi just past midnight wising towards the Center of Tel Aviv to the Crown Plaza.

Got it—checked in… got online… Wi-Fi… was able to leach on a free network… sent a few emails and crashed at about 2AM.

Woke-up at around 7AM… internet was down --- spotty (comes goes… Skype logs in and out .. cant browse… cant email…) Called tech support but I guess Saturday is the weekend so no answer. I left a message…

Had breakfast at 9am in a ruckus breakfast room overlooking the Med (Mediterranean) lovely scene… room full of families.. kids… moms and dads. Nothing like fresh bread… some matzo… cucumbers… tomatoes… olives and yogurt… um um!

Came down to the lobby waiting for Benny… a security guard at the door checking backpacks… a couple of Asian looking guys walk in without checking (probably a bad idea)…. The weather is great! Waiting for the day to start… Wi-Fi still iffy… its 10AM.

In-reute to Tel Aviv...

2006-11-16T12:57:00.001-08:00

I'm going to be updating this entry as I make my way down to Tel Aviv to meet with the "Hikkup" team.

Follow pics of this trip here.

Noon Thu Nov 16, 2006, - Redwood Shores, CA. I am on my way to Tel Aviv, Israel. This is my first trip to Israel but not the region. I’ve been to Dubai a couple of times the last few years. I was born in Baghdad (yup! Iraq) before immigrating to California, U.S.A., 27 years ago. While in Baghdad, I have foggy recollections of visiting Aleppo and Damascus in the mid 70's. My mom tells me I’ve been to East Jerusalem in 1965 at the age of 3 (this I definitely don't remember).

The cab ride to SFO was uneventful. The cab was late about 5 minutes because – like every other cabby – the driver was lost looking for my street. In this day and age of GPS navigation, you’d imagine this would not longer be happening but I guess “lost drivers” are not a “pain point” for taxi companies yet to invest in the technology.

I had a very polite driver who ended each sentence with “sir” (not something you hear often in the U.S.). We drove by the San Carlos airport and the conversation turned to the cabbies desire to own a private helicopter  … and a yacht with a helipad… Young guy with big dreams – why not?!

My flight to Atlanta Delta DL1648 is delayed 30 mins… hopefully, this is the worse of it. A friend from overseas recently traveling with Delta got a double-whammy: her luggage was lost twice – on the way in and on the way out. Ouch!

What a revolution!!!

2006-09-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

After being on the sidelines for a long time, I finally began uploading pictures and videos online - the feeling of sharing is great!

As of this post, I have 62 videos on YouTube with the first one uploaded July 2. The traffic at this place is simply phe-no-mi-nal!

A favorite 10 second break activity is to visit YouTube and check my stats! If I had a timer at the corner of my screen, I bet it would be turning in real time (like your home electric meter, all bet it slow but alive). Mind you that my videos are nothing special. They are vacation videos and a few marginally interesting things. I just cross the 5,000 view mark in about 8 weeks. That's an average of 90 views a day and more than 3 views an hour. The most views I have is 360 (the long tail of the long-tail).

Here are a couple of random data points that to me illustrate the power of the traffic going through YouTube.

When I posted this clip I got a comment within 24 hours from someone congratulating me for having posted a video from an event that he also attended. So you might be thinking "so what's the big deal?". The big deal is that the event in question was an Opera ballet that I attended in Yerevan, Armenia, at the end of June that this same person was at. Not only those astronomical odds, but that he/she found the video of said event on YouTube and commented on it. What are the odds? Coincidentally, this is my most viewed video following by this unscripted moments from my last trip to Yerevan, Armenia.

Yesterday, during our weekly weekend ritual at a local computer enrichment center that we take our sons to, the teenage coach there asked my oldest (Aram) whether we had videos on YouTube. Apparently, he and his friend was searching around for a few choice tags and they stumbled on this clip. Again, what are the odds?

By comparison, flickr is slower going. As of this blog, I have about 1,400 photos on there - again mostly vacation stuff. My flickr is pushing 3,000 views.

I also took a step with Revver. As of 5 weeks ago, I uploaded about a dozen of the videos on YouTube. As of this blog, I have $11.10 in shared revenue which tickles me pink! However, something happened and the revenue stream hasn't grown this last week. I don't know if things are getting berried by new arrivals or what...

Here is the video I'm currently rooting for to push 300.

The feeling of being connected and sharing is just amazing and inspiring! Its a quiet euphoria when someone comments on a video or ranks it. This must be what it feels like when you're in the middle of a revolution.

On a related subject. Check out this from Blog Mavrick "when is a view a hit?" (good question - I don't know the answer).

The Net-Net:

1. I'm working on a NetVibes-ish front end for the various photo and video sharing services out there. Something that would let me tag and comment once. Also, something that summarizes the usage stats in one place.

2. I'm also interested in geo-tagging video. Search for the tags nahabedian and driving on YouTube for a hint. If you know of anything similar, drop me a line.

My first post!

2006-09-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, inspired by all the cool blogs out there, I created a TypePad account. I was enthused at first but then got lazy and hardly posted anything.

When I found out that I had to pay to post, after my TypePad trial account expired, that pretty much ended my nascent efforts at blogging right there and then. As it turns out, I had not reached the tipping point back then to join the blogosphere. That is, until I discovered Blogger which is free!

Earlier today, I tipped-over and created this account and I am now totally reinvigorated to start blogging. I hope and plan to blog here from time to time.

By the way, as I spell-checked this post (spelling is not my strong suit), the Blogger spellchecker flagged the word blogosphere as a typo ;-) Strange, no?