BlogSphere

Keep up to date with your favourite Rails bloggers in context.

Video Embedding Done Right

by Dave Grijalva | 2 days ago | Read more

After the disgraceful performance by the LA Times, here is funny or die to show us the proper way to provide embed tags. A simple button to push the tag right up into your clipboard. Very nice. Also, enjoy this hilarious interview with a classic American Gladiator. See Malibu is a Champion and [...]

Petia Wohed on YAWL at BPMinna

by John Mettraux | 2 days ago | Read more

On Monday 30th of June, we were lucky enough to have a presentation by Petia Wohed of the Information Systems Laboratory of the University of Stockholm (and Royal Institute of Technology). Petia contacted me last year while she was reviewing OpenWFE[ja] (and other open source workflow systems) in the light of the workflow patterns. I already [...]

Randomness

by Calle Dybedahl | 2 days ago | Read more

So, lately I have, in between playing WoW and writing for

femslash08, been binge-watching Kim Possible (it's Andy Weir's fault). It's surprisingly entertaining, and quite rich in jokes I'm not at all sure are actually aimed at their primary target audience.

I have also, of course, been looking for Kim Possible slash. That experience has been very similar to when I first started looking for Xena altfic some ten years ago. First, there is the incredible OTPness of it. Somewhere around 80% of KP slash is Kim/Shego, and I suspect something like that was Xena/Gabrielle back in the day. Second, there is the at least to me surprising underrepresentation of a pairing with pretty strong in-text support (Kim/Monique and Gabrielle/Aphrodite, respectively). Third, there is the astounding length of many of the stories. Like, where you first look at the wordcount number and think "Hm, that's a pretty long story", and then you realise that wait, no, that number has six digits, not five (I still remember being totally boggled when I realised that not only did Melissa Good's "Journey of Soulmates" series have quite a few parts, each part was an entire novel). I mean, who the heck sits down and writes a story of almost half a million words? That's half again as long as Lord of the Rings, just to give you something to compare with. Or about the same as Tolstoy's War and Peace (depending on which language you read Tolstoy in), if you're more familiar with that. The mind, it boggles.

And of course most of it is crap, but that is universal to all fandoms.

regexp on String object

by Vidul Petrov | 2 days ago | Read more

Some of the more rarely used string methods:

str = "the tester"

str["tester"]        #true, the String contains "tester"
str[/\w+\s\w+/] #true, the String matches the regexp

emulates capitalize!

str[/(\w+)/] = ($1[0] - 32).chr

RDoc Documentation

RE: FCKeditor on Rails

by Ruslan Voloshin | 2 days ago | Read more

Спасибо! Я нашёл!

Nursing theory - conceptual spaces: Where's my T-shirt?

by Peter Jones | 2 days ago | Read more

Image source http//www.blazingclothing.co.uk/

Tripp-Reimer's 1996 paper The Dimensional Structure of Nursing Interventions has been sitting in my dsw - 'do something with' - pile for ages. Now reading Gardenfors I came across multidimensional scaling and realised that Tripp-Reimer et al. have also been there done that. They have been wearing the T-shirt for well over a decade.

Their paper begins with the evolution of nursing’s substantive structures and the emergence through the late 1960s to the early 1980s of a plethora of conceptual models (including - but not mentioned Hodges’ model). According to Tripp-Reimer these models while clearly possessed of nursing credentials, they were not always produced as combined research and practice tools. They argue that this failure may have contributed to the rise of the metaparadigm of nursing, with the effect that:

‘At best, the metaparadigm myth provided a rationale and mechanism for the discipline to displace (transcend) the conceptual models.’ p.11.

Ah! So that would account for why Hodges' model (and other global conceptual frameworks) have languished in the lay-bye!

‘Currently, nursing conceptual models have limited utility beyond their historical importance. That utility is derived from the structures they can provide for nursing education programs. Analogously, they also provide a framework that is useful for beginning nurses, assisting them in cognitively framing a clinical situation. These models provide a map, stimulating the new nurse in a clinically familiar space.’ p.15.

The paper goes on to contrast the way these models are used a-consciously by experts. I would suggest that there is a problem in nursing theory; or if not so severe as to be deemed a 'problem' then a tension at least. Educationalists (theorists) will rightly justify the case for nursing to be defined and boundaries set; otherwise, curricula will not support delivery of the desired learning experience, would lack focus and integrity in terms of evaluation of content and professional credibility. Socio-politically professional groups need a sense of (group) identity. The intention to develop models – theories in order to delineate nursing and establish professional identity is, however, at odds with the practice objectives of holistic and (interdisciplinary) integrated health and social care. Nurses need conceptual models and spaces that extend - from the outset - beyond the clinical situation.

It is the unfamiliar spaces (patient, carer, community... occupied) that we must seek or at least be able to account for in assessment, planning, interventions, evaluation (research) and information governance. Clinical situations should certainly be familiar within the bounds (latitude) of the curricula and including the match between what is taught and practical experience (practicum).

Health and social care, education and policy are constantly changing. Amid the rapid pace of T-shirt slogan turnover tools such as Hodges’ model retain their relevance for experts and beginners alike.

Tripp-Reimer, T., Woodworth, G., McCloskey, J.C., Bulechek, G. (1996). The dimensional structure of nursing interventions. Nursing Research; 45(1):pp.10-17.

T-shirt image source Copyright © 2001 - 2008 The CELDirect Group: http//www.blazingclothing.co.uk/

IMGP0773

by Dan Higham | 2 days ago | Read more

danhigham posted a photo:

If Carlsberg made Granddads, they'd probably be the best Granddads in the world! My Granddad, died 4th July 2008, rest well, we'll all miss you...

Rails 2.1

by Marcos Abel | 2 days ago | Read more

Sobre Rails 2.1 sólo puedo decir que es más de lo mismo, pero mejor. Podéis comprobarlo leyendo el libro gratuíto que el amigo Carlos Brando ha tenido a bien publicar y que recopila todas las novedades de esta versión.

The return of Lina

by Hongli Lai | 2 days ago | Read more

HOLY COW!!! After more than 10 years*, she’s back! Who am I talking about? She refers to herself as “the perfect, invi…” aw whatever, I’ll let her do the talking: Why is Slayers so great? I think this comment worded it the best: Oh, shush Zaeris. Slayers was one of THE most popular titles of the 90’s [...]

Why Startups Need Automated Infrastructures

by Claus Christensen | 2 days ago | Read more

| View | Upload your own

aizatto: Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.

by Ezwan Aizat bin Abdullah Faiz | 2 days ago | Read more

aizatto: Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.

"In 2007, with oil at $82 and gas nearing $3, Congress finally approved the first big increase in..."

by Alan C Francis | 2 days ago | Read more

“In 2007, with oil at $82 and gas nearing $3, Congress finally approved the first big increase in fuel-efficiency standards in 32 years, requiring the fleet average to reach 35 m.p.g. by 2020. That will save one million barrels a day by 2020, but onetime CAFE opponents like Mr. Castle now say they wish that Congress had acted sooner. Since the 1980s, fuel efficiency has flatlined at 24 m.p.g., while vehicle weight has jumped more than 25 percent and horsepower has nearly doubled. In Europe, on the other hand, fuel efficiency currently stands at 44 m.p.g. and is slated to hit 48 m.p.g. by 2012.”

- American Energy Policy, Asleep at the Spigot - NYTimes.com

"Representative John D. Dingell, the powerful Democrat from Detroit who chairs the House Energy and..."

by Alan C Francis | 2 days ago | Read more

“Representative John D. Dingell, the powerful Democrat from Detroit who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, argues — as he did more than a decade ago — that tightening CAFE standards unfairly penalizes domestic automakers while rewarding foreign rivals who make more small cars.
Mr. Dingell, who has defended the automakers fiercely during his 52 years on Capitol Hill, decided to support the stronger CAFE standards last year. But he does not apologize for his longtime stance. “The American auto industry has sold the cars people wanted,” he says. “You’re going to blame the auto industry for that or the American consumer? He likes it sitting in his driveway, he likes it big, he likes it safe.”
A much more effective approach would be to simply raise taxes on gasoline, Mr. Dingell says, because higher prices are the easiest way to change buying habits. Some Europeans agree with this, noting that policy changes engineered through taxation can alter consumer choices without impeding economic growth.
Consumers overseas might not like higher taxes on gasoline, but they’ve adapted, says Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, the European energy giant. “A society can work, can function and can grow even at higher fuel prices,” he says. “It’s a way of life — you get used to it.”
In Mr. van der Veer’s native Holland, for example, gasoline sells for more than $10 a gallon, with $5.57 of that going to taxes. Even in Britain, which has substantial North Sea production, gasoline sells for $8.71 a gallon.”

- American Energy Policy, Asleep at the Spigot - NYTimes.com

"Home to only 4 percent of the world’s population, the nation slurps up about a quarter of the..."

by Alan C Francis | 2 days ago | Read more

“Home to only 4 percent of the world’s population, the nation slurps up about a quarter of the planet’s oil — and Americans’ daily use is nearly twice the combined consumption of the Chinese and Indians, according to an annual energy survey published by BP, the British oil giant.”

- American Energy Policy, Asleep at the Spigot - NYTimes.com

LAGWAGON, MxPx, Only Crime, and TAT - Rimouski September 8th

by Andrew Koster | 2 days ago | Read more

Nick says go see Lagwagon in Rimouski on September 8th with MxPx, Only Crime, and TAT.

Proposal: An open inter-conversation microblogging protocol

by Myles Eftos | 2 days ago | Read more

Spurred on by Gary’s discussion on the number of micro-blogging sites around, the “Is it Distributed?” question made we wonder if we are going about this wrong. Cameron Adams was right when he said there is only one social network, so why are we flicking between a large number of them? Why aren’t we running [...]

Be Evil or Not Be

by beenhero | 2 days ago | Read more

很多网站的成功不是因为它们的产品做有多出色，却是着着实实捕捉了人性的特点，我列了些：性懒猎奇虚荣游戏猜疑迷信偷窥胡搞自我满足爱受夸奖 and next … We gonna think about and make innovation. 但不可否认的，很多会带来负面影响，虽然这些人性特点天然存在，但通过互联网这个工具，被放大后带来的问题是非常之大的，比如网络游戏戕害了不少少年儿童，那么作为企业家、作为商人，商业价值与社会道德冲突的时候，该如何作出选择？没有答案，只有自己心里的底线 :\

Deployment tutorial … soon …

by Bob Martens | 2 days ago | Read more

I need to apologize. I will be bringing the next part in my Rails Deployment Tutorial soon, hopefully the beginning of this week. Sorry for the time delay, just gotten caught up in too many things at once.

New! — Make A Payment

by Robert Bousquet | 3 days ago | Read more

In an effort to simplify the billing process for our customers we have recently completed our very own custom built online payment application. We are now a web design company that can accept credit or check cards…through our website. Who knew?

Check Out Make A Payment
https://newleaders.com/payments

The process is very simple and allows you to enter your contact, invoice (optional) and billing information. Once you submit the payment you will be presented with a receipt page which you can print (or save as PDF) as well as an email that details the transaction for safe keeping. The link to “Make A Payment” is located at the bottom of every page of our website.

We are currently in the process of developing full account management features for our customers including estimates, invoices, payments, financing and online ordering. As time passes you will see how all of these applications add up to be a more accountable and pleasant experience when working with us.

My Bloody Valentine

by Cameron Yule | 3 days ago | Read more

Went to see My Bloody Valentine at the Barrowlands with Sarah and my ears are still recovering. The following video is from a section of the gig that came in the middle of their last song, and is called ‘the holocaust’.

Contando lineas de código

by Juan Pablo Ortiz Arechiga | 3 days ago | Read more

Cloc es una herramienta hecha en perl para contar lineas de código. Lo grande de todo es que tiene la habilidad de detectar y separar por lenguaje de programación, ademas de distinguir los resultados para que estos no sean inflados por lineas blancas o comentadas. Estaba acostumbrado a algún simple script que contara los totales, cuando mucho [...]

tuneage:Lilofee - “Lock and Key”We don’t know much about...

by Tim Riley | 3 days ago | Read more

tuneage:

Lilofee - “Lock and Key”
We don’t know much about Lilofee, except that they make excellent electro pop, listing their influences as 60s girl bands, 80s dark pop, and 90s industrial.

Don’t just check out this sweet tune from lilofree, but also head over to tuneage for regular doses of new, interesting music!

aizatto: Finished "Stranger In A Strange Land"

by Ezwan Aizat bin Abdullah Faiz | 3 days ago | Read more

aizatto: Finished "Stranger In A Strange Land"

Fireworks!

by Curt Mills | 3 days ago | Read more

Fireworks!

Takashi Murakami

by Eric Mill | 3 days ago | Read more

MB and I went to the Murakami exhibit exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum today. It’s only running until June 13, so if you’re here, get there quick.

There’s some compelling stuff there, some more lurid and some more disturbing than these. I don’t know if I saw anything I’d qualify as “simply beautiful”, in any peaceful kind of way. There was always some non-innocent quality to the work. This also makes sense, as I just noticed his website has on the front page him quoted as saying “I express hopelessness.” I very much appreciated it.

And now, a commercial of some kind that features minutes of his lighter work brought into “3D”, kind of.

Salve os desenvolvedores - Diga não ao Internet Explorer 6

by Carlos Brando | 3 days ago | Read more

É normal no mundo do desenvolvimento de software discussões sobre qual tecnologia é melhor ou pior e normalmente isto gera muito flame war, mas existe uma coisa que todos os desenvolvedores (seja ele de java, ruby, php, …) concordam: o Internet Explorer 6 demorou para sumir da face da Terra. Por isto também entro na campanha [...]

CapGun and LogBuddy updated to 0.0.5

by Rob Sanheim | 3 days ago | Read more

Some long overdue releases of cap_gun and log_buddy - both have been updated to version 0.0.5. Both are now available as gems on github.com/relevance as well as from rubyforge. CapGun gives you super simple deployment notifications from Capistrano. LogBuddy gives you a log helper through all objects, and can also log the name of [...]

InvalidAuthenticityToken and Dojo Toolkit

by Gabriel Medina | 3 days ago | Read more

InvalidAuthenticityToken and Dojo Toolkit

... or how to add your authenticity token to a hand made form in Rails

Finally decied to take on Dojo

Hello again, I started playing with the Dojo Toolkit, and I really liked it, first thing I found was that it used to be incompatible with Prototype/Script.aculo.us, but that seems to have been fixed, just add a little config for dojo before loading it, and that gets the job done, also you should not forget to load dojo toolkit before loading prototype/script.aculo.us.

Googled with no luck, just Toolbocks

Well, I shall tell you that before going this path I obviously Googled for a ready made gem and/or plug in that I could use to get dojo on Rails, and found Dojo Toolbocks plug in, but reading the documentation it requires you to add the engines plug in, that I am not really fond of, and that was an immediate turn off...

I don't like the engines plug in, do you?

Also I looked for more documentation about it but it seems all it does is just load the dojo toolkit, so I went on to try and build a plug in that would do that without needing the engines plug in.

dojo_support plugin ina repository near you soon

I will publish this new plug in that will be named dojo_support, when it's ready for a beta test, and that means writing a couple of helpers for views and also a render similar to the Rails' javascript RJS render.

The InvalidAuthenticityToken Error

While developing the code for a helper to create remote form tags that work with dojo, I came into a problem creating the forms, where rails complains about an Invalid Authenticity Token. This is required by the ProtectFromForgery feature of Rails.

Disabled protection? I don't think so.

I had two choices, first, disable protect from forgery in the controllers for actions handling remote dojo forms (not a choice really), second was adding the needed authenticity token to the form, that is generate the form code and include the authenticity token as a hidden field just like regular Rails' generated forms.

This is where I was stuck, I googled without luck finding only posts that told me to add

protect_from_forgery :except => :my_method

as shown in RequesForgeryProtection Class Methods to disable forgery protection for specific methods but this was something I didnt feel users should do.

The Discovery of form_authenticity_token

I finally found where this protection is in the Rails tree, and found in RequestForgeryProtection that you can reach the token with

form_authenticity_token

The discovery of request_forgery_protection_token

And looking around in options_for_ajax, I found you can get the name of the field in the form with

request_forgery_protection_token

I found it in ActionView::Helpers::PrototypeHelper (use the show source link in the options_for_ajax method).

So, how do you use them?

So to end this long post, to prevent InvalidAuthenticityToken forms created by hand just add the following line to your .html.erb form:

<input name="<%= request_forgery_protection_token.to_s %>" type="hidden" value="<%= form_authenticity_token %>" />

And you're on track again.

I hope I have the skills to make Dojo as easy as Prototype/Script.aculo.us

Hope this helps someone, of course this will be included in the helpers of the new dojo_support plugin which I expect to publish in a couple of weeks, with the target of making the use of dojo+rails+RDJS(Rails Dojo Javascript) as easy as prototype+sriptaculous+RJS.

Greetings everyone.

Gabriel Medina.

Empty Wallet Treatment

by Ryan Bigg | 3 days ago | Read more

Thanks to the guys at NetFox (Yuji or Adam) for the name for this post. Tomorrow I go to the dentist to have empty wallet (read: root canal) treatment (hereafter referred to as EWT). My tooth that broke at Railscamp has a serious bout of decay in it no thanks to me not caring for my [...]

Links for 2008-07-05 [del.icio.us]

by John Wulff | 3 days ago | Read more

Facebook - Needle in a Haystack: Efficient Storage of Billions of Photos

Some B-school and Startup reflections

by Peter Jackson | 3 days ago | Read more

My friend and colleague Theo Nguyen-Cao posted on his blog about considering graduate school. He inspired me to dig up some reflections on my B-School experience and my startup lifestyle.

I’ve learned a few things working on startups while going to B-School. Here’s just one:

Creation of value means more than selling more Delivering value to shareholders is often cited as a business objective. Certainly that is a component of what value creation entails, but there’s more to it. There are elements of value creation that include building better products for customers, aligning organizational and social objectives, and reducing impacts to other parties.

@zuno Thanks for sending links…

by Bill Heaton | 3 days ago | Read more

@zuno Thanks for sending links my way!

Now that they’re free

by Dave Grijalva | 3 days ago | Read more

The LA Times website posted a clever short video poking fun at the new hands free cellphone law. In typical online video style, they provide an object/embed tag that you can use to stick this video on your own site. As seems typical of online versions of dead tree style publications, they just [...]

This Blog Powered by Glassfish, JRuby and JRuby-Rack

by Nick Sieger | 3 days ago | Read more

Well, the recent Ruby 1.8.6 issues, including an apparent memory leak problem that was plaguing my blog’s mongrel caused me to evaluate what should have been obvious long ago. That I should put my money where my mouth is and upgrade to JRuby on Glassfish using JRuby-Rack and Warbler.

And so it’s done.

Activerecord-jdbc-adapter 0.8.1 Released

I’m now running the blog in Glassfish V2 with JRuby 1.1.1 and JRuby-Rack 0.9 (facilitated by Warbler 0.9.9), along with activerecord-jdbc-adapter 0.8.2. Here’s to dog-fooding!

(Now if only I could find a situation painful enough to force up to re-skin this blog beyond the ancient Typo azure theme...)

Simple MP3 system for a partially sighted person

by Steve Dalton | 3 days ago | Read more

I was recently asked by someone to investigate an MP3 player solution for someone that is partially sighted. Up until now they had been using a CD player with a big screen on, but when this broke there was no suitable replacement, and anything else that they tried jumped due the vibrations from the drumming that was going along with the music. I'm blogging this more for the benefit of my brother-in-law who will be setting it up - but it might be useful to somebody else.

Anyway an old laptop was provided - and as this system had to be fool proof and crash proof, a Linux install was an obvious choice. The system had to boot straight into the MP3 player, and the user would just hit the power button when finished and power saving would ensure a clean shutdown. The player had to be full screen (nothing around it to confuse) and the only other requirements were that it had to play a single playlist and have some nice big buttons.

I tried a lot of different things, icewm, fluxbox, various different players with various skins, but I just stumbled (thankyou Patrick O'Hearn) on an almost perfect setup - Banshee.

Banshee and Rhythmbox box have "party modes" where you can put it into full screen, but unfortunately Rhythmbox does not remember the state and always starts in windowed mode... so Banshee won there.

1. The base system is Ubuntu Hardy with Gnome - to install banshee from command line:
sudo apt-get install banshee
or use the Add/Remove gui - I think it's in there.

2. Get the playlist setup right, then hit F11 to put it into full screen. Then quit the app (it will remember status).

3. Next I wanted to do away with the window manager completely - I was going to use fluxbox - but I think raw X11, does just fine.

Create a file in your home directory called .xinitrc and put the follow in the file:
#!/usr/bin/env bash dbus-launch banshee

sneakin: if individuals had nukes, the world would be littered with giger counters. (via Blog)

by Nolan Eakins | 3 days ago | Read more

posted an entry on a blog

sneakin: if individuals had nukes, the world would be littered with giger counters.

8:23 pm - Comment

My wife and I are both currently enduring the flu or something like it.

by Ryan L. Cross | 3 days ago | Read more

My wife and I are both currently enduring the flu or something like it.

Ecto is seriously p###ing me off

by Damien McKenna | 3 days ago | Read more

I was close to finished a rather long comparison of On The Job and OfficeTime but Ecto managed to loose the content for a second time. DAMNIT!

David and Brad Explain TechStars

by Alexander Muse | 3 days ago | Read more

ColoradoBizTV interviews David Cohen and Brad Feld about TechStars in this video.

Taking the Plunge: Part 4

by Rich Manalang | 3 days ago | Read more

In case you haven’t had enough of my epic dumping of Windows for Ubuntu odyssey, here’s another installment. This is likely to be the last one, but no promises. This is my fist blog post from Ubuntu, not a huge deal, but still. I’m probably 75-80% of the way done, with a few holes yet to fill, [...]

you paid how much for this!?

by Oliver Clarke | 3 days ago | Read more

My Victoria is the new “campus portal” we’re all being forced to use at our university. It’s powered by some software from Sungard Higher Education - a company with offices in Florida, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Good on Vic for supporting New Zealand. I’d perhaps be less bitter if the thing wasn’t terrible. There are just so [...]

No Degree Required

by Corey Ehmke | 3 days ago | Read more

Last week I responded to a general media posted online request looking for people who “made it” via self study: I am looking for professionals who developed their particular expertise by intense focus, discipline and self study. You didn’t necessarily learn what you know and what you’ve become good at (and known for) at college [...]

build

by Steven Ness | 3 days ago | Read more

Lev Sergeyevich Termen
A Theremin Love Story
Theremin Schematics
Ultimate Original Schematic
The Capacitive Sensor - Pressure and Accelerometer
Capacitive Sensors - An Overview
Building a reliable capacitive-sensor interface
Capacitive Sensor Operation and Optimization - How Capacitive Sensors Work and How to Use Them Effectively
Spread Spectrum Capacitive Sensor

Sneak Peek: Unhygienic Rewriting Ruby by Example

by Reginald Braithwaite | 3 days ago | Read more


def test_unhygienic_andand
  andand = Unhygienic.from {
    __to_receiver.andand.__to_message(__splat_parameters)
  }.to {
    lambda { |andand_temp|
      andand_temp.__to_message(__splat_parameters) if andand_temp
    }.call(__to_receiver)
  }
  assert_equal(
    'Hello' + ' World', 
    with(andand) do
        'Hello'.andand + ' World'
    end
  )
  assert_nil(
    with(andand) do
        nil.andand + ' World'
    end
  )
end

Let’s take a closer look:


Rewrite::With.expand(andand) do
  class Funky
    def hello_world
      'Hello'.andand + ' World'
    end
  end
end

produces:


class Funky
  def hello_world
    lambda { |andand_temp| 
        (andand_temp + " World") if andand_temp 
    }.call("Hello")
  end
end

As you can probably deduce, it’s unhygienic: Variables like andand_temp shadow variables declared elsewhere. This is a problem if you fail to choose a sufficiently obfuscated name or—more likely—nest constructions like #andand.

Both the Classically Metaprogrammed and the Sexp-Rewriting versions of #andand avoid this problem.

Next step: Better hygiene.