Baby Nov 27, 11:51 PM

This site Feb 27, 05:56 PM

The CSS on this site is just weird. It dates back to at least 2002, maybe earlier. So if this site looks all funky in your browser, well, just deal with it. I don’t really feel like re-designing this site right now.

However, I did add a little Flickr badge there on the right. Its the 7 newest photos from my Flickr account. Between our great Nikon D70s we got as a wedding present, and the Flickr Pro account that Sonny was nice enough to give me, I’ll be putting more photos online because its fun.

Left or Right Feb 9, 01:05 PM

A great way to waste time is this site called Left or Right that I found while browsing HappyCodr.

Here is a screenshot from their site that I thought was very funny, and a little bit sad…

XBOX 360 Wireless Adapter Feb 4, 03:28 PM

I bought an XBOX 360 this weekend and set it up on my wireless network at home so I could join XBOX Live. I bought the XBOX 360 Wireless Adapter for it, and this is a quick note about configuring it.

My network uses an Access Control List for the MAC addresses of machines that are allowed to join the network. I looked on the back of the Wireless Adapter because most wireless devices have their MAC address listed somewhere on them for this very reason.

The problem is that the MAC address listed on the physical Wireless Adapter is not the MAC address it uses! After a half-hour of frustration, I stumbled upon a screen buried in the System menu of the XBOX that reported a different MAC address!

So if you are having a similar problem, just go look at the following screen, System / Network Settings / Edit Settings / Additional Settings (tap right to get there, it’s the tab at the top) / Advanced Settings (tap down once you’re in Additional Settings). Below the menu on the left you’ll see the screen say, “Wired MAC Address” and that will be the MAC that your WireLESS Adapter uses. So to summarize, the actual MAC address of the Wireless Adapter is reported in a screen that is buried 6 levels deep, and its actually called the wrong thing!

I think the XBOX is pretty cool so far, and I like their games (I purchased it out of frustration about the lack of decent games now for my GameCube and PS2), but this kind of crap is one big fat reason I hate Microsoft. The verdict is still out on whether I will pay for XBOX Live Gold or not.

me == Job.new( :name => 'Geezeo', :position => 'Web Developer' ) Feb 4, 03:14 PM

Tomorrow I will start my new job and I’m very excited about it. I will be working for a small start-up company in Massachusetts creating a web application called “Geezeo”. You can go see what we’re up to over at Geezeo.com.

The product isn’t launched yet because that’s where I come in. I will be their Web Developer (reporting to the CTO, though, there are only 4 of us) writing the application using Ruby on Rails.

I will not be moving to MA, rather I’ll be working from home and traveling out there when necessary. Those who know me well know that I am obsessed with Ruby and Ruby on Rails. This is like a dream job for me, and the best part is, I’ll be getting paid more to do it!

We’ll be working really hard to launch a beta of the service, and since I’ll be using Rails every day, I would like to start posting more here about Rails and Ruby in general. I’m actually thinking of starting a blog on Futuremint.com focusing only on Rails stuff.

Indianapolis Ruby Users Group (IRUG)! Jan 10, 01:26 AM

IRUG

I’ve been to many “User’s Groups” before and I am a member of the local Central Indiana Impreza Club. It is great to develop a group of friends who are passionate about something and I’ve had a lot of fun and made nice friends with some of the local Subaru people. It is nice to have a network of people who can help out with just about anything imaginable that you would need for your car. I’ve wanted a local group where I can discuss the Ruby programming language ever since I started learning Ruby back in early 2004. For me Ruby has opened the doorway to that part of me that used to love programming and had fun doing it. I like to call it “Adult LEGOs”. I can only hope that there are others in Indianapolis who like Ruby just as much.

So I’ve created an account on Meetup.com and started the Indianapolis Ruby Users Group!

I am excited because a part of me is, of course, imagining that all sorts of Ruby users who have been “sneaking Ruby through the system” for years will come out of the woodwork, join the meeting, and get caught RedHanded. Those familiar with the Ruby community will know exactly what I am talking about.

Then there is the cynical side of me that says that nobody will show up. Maybe I should schedule it at my favorite coffee shop and bring my new copy of Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd edition with me and read up on all the fun I can have with Integration testing or something. After all, none of my projects have 100% code coverage (I am embarrassed to actually disclose the real amount of coverage).

SketchFighter 4000 Alpha == XPilot? Dec 4, 02:53 PM

I used to play XPilot when I was in college and using Linux alot. Now, Ambrosia Software comes out with a new game called SketchFighter 4000 Alpha. My first thought when I saw the movie of SketchFighter was, “Hey, thats XPilot!”

I am really curious to know if they used any code from XPilot in the making of SketchFighter though. After all XPilot is open source software. I’m downloading SketchFighter now and I’ll play it after work. It looks like a cool game. And hooray for more Mac games (even though I know part of my decision to switch to a Mac as a responsible adult was because they didn’t have many games).

Few Things Oct 20, 12:29 AM

We are nearing completion on putting tile on our bathroom floor (gosh, using the verb ‘putting’ makes it sound so quaint!) and replacing the tile in the shower. The shower walls needed the plaster torn out (the house is 80 years old and everything is horse hair plaster) and replaced with cement board. The walls are almost completely done with the plaster texture, the faucet, handles & toilet are all back in, and all grout is dry and sealed. The only thing left is for me to cut & install the baseboards and for Rachel and I to paint the walls.

Then we get to have a professional re-glaze the bathtub (maybe). Its an old cast-iron affair with multiple layers of cheap glazing applied to it over the years. I sort of scraped off some of the glazing removing the old caulk. I wasn’t exactly nice with the putty knife.

Been learning Scheme lately (using PLT Scheme for a project at work). Its fun and ratchets the level of power up another notch from Ruby. Ruby is great and all but there are times when it isn’t. Especially with my penchant for metaprogramming lately. LISP style metaprogramming is much nicer with the macros and all. And I am starting to really like the code-as-data and the lambda calculus syntax. Both very fun.

Also busy at work but its been pretty decent this week. No more live football game webcasts on Friday nights. Dunno if we’ll do them for basketball yet.

Oh, we’re getting our giant maple out back trimmed next week. That should be fun.

Ruby on Rails and Mongrel with Apache 2.2 Aug 9, 01:39 AM

Beware those who are not Rails geeks who enter here:

So I decided to turn left off of the highway of FCGI onto a “scenic route” called Mongrel on the map. This is probably more for my personal knowledge than yours, but I had a few issues. See my server runs DirectAdmin, which is a shiny account/hosting server app. I used DirectAdmin’s scripts to compile Apache 2.2.3 in all of its sparkling glory, however the first few times I forgot to build it with all shared modules enabled.

Well… its working now and Mongrel is nice. I just ran siege on it and it passed with flying colors with a cluster of two Mongrels running the site. What ended up happening with Apache is that I didn’t have the modules compiled, and then when I did I needed to include mod_proxy, mod_proxy_http, and mod_proxy_balancer in the httpd.conf file. I also kept forgetting the ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse directive which I stuck inside the VirtualHost directive of the domain that was hosted. This way I could setup the Proxy on a per-domain basis.

Now I’ll just need to figure out the rails plugin that allows me to make the app aware that it’s being proxied through a directory (i.e. coolsite.com/proxied_app/). Most of the apps running on the server are small hastily constructed things which reside in directories because they’re too small/cheap to even bother with a real domain name.

P.S. I’m thinking I’d like to setup a blog on Futuremint.com for this sort of techy crap. Then I can rant all about Subarus, Mountains, and politics over here.

06/08/06 Jun 8, 12:25 PM

Hmm… still here. Is this hell? The air-conditioning still works so my guess is no. But I’ve been wrong before.