1. 23 October 2008

    The Haskell School of Expression

    Paul Hudak

    645 days ago

    Good book on haskell. I grabbed it off amazon a while ago, but it took me a while to get to it. And I just read the book, didn’t do many of the exercises due to the fact that I was reading it to eat time on the soccer bus mostly. I’m kind of mad that Hudak spends so much time on writing an elementary graphics system, because the book is pegged as a kind of multimedia tutorial in haskell, and of all the media that there are graphics is the least interesting to me. It’s got some nice chapters later on about music though, and I actually understand what first class functions are now. (Ruby doesn’t have them, although the constructs available to you there do make a huge difference coming from a language like java, and are fairly powerful.)

  2. 09 June 2006

    1512 days ago

    Dynamic time based finder for ActiveRecord

    Holy shit, ruby rocks. (self-link).

    Kjell Olsen1512 days ago

  3. 05 June 2006

    Rails minutiae

    1516 days ago

    So there isn’t anything harder to take then a subtle bug with little apparent cause. That’s why this sort of thing kills me:

    
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.1.0/lib/sqlite3/errors.rb:94:in `check': cannot rollback - no transaction is active (SQLite3::SQLException)
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.1.0/lib/sqlite3/resultset.rb:76:in `check'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.1.0/lib/sqlite3/resultset.rb:68:in `commence'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.1.0/lib/sqlite3/resultset.rb:61:in `initialize'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.1.0/lib/sqlite3/statement.rb:158:in `execute'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.1.0/lib/sqlite3/database.rb:211:in `execute'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.1.0/lib/sqlite3/database.rb:186:in `prepare'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.1.0/lib/sqlite3/database.rb:210:in `execute'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.1.0/lib/sqlite3/database.rb:620:in `rollback'
         ... 13 levels...
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/test/unit/autorunner.rb:200:in `run'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/test/unit/autorunner.rb:13:in `run'
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/test/unit.rb:285
        from test/unit/workout_test.rb:10

    There are time when I’ll just get fed up with the damn computer, and this caused me to wrap up last night and go try to learn to read music1. There was even less information in that error as there is in musical notation! I can almost deal with sound visually on a staff, but it’s real troubling to deal with a bug that won’t leave the slightest clue.

    But I think I’ve got it scrubbed out. Commenting things out strategically leads me to not want fixtures with nil values. Changing this:

    
invalid_exercise:
  id: 4
  name:  
  description:

    into this:

    
invalid_exercise:
  id: 4
  name: ""
  description: ""

    mopped things up real well for me. Now there’s just one more thing that is making me want to bash my laptop with a rock, as soon as I can find it, I’ll be for smooth sailing.

    1 Quite the feat actually: I quit piano in 6th grade because although I could play whatever anyone threw at me by ear, no way did I have the patience to learn to read those goddamned notes.

  4. 28 April 2006

    1554 days ago

    Having Done Java

    Having been a Java programmer will make you a better Ruby or Python or whatever programmer.

    Agreed. My first language was ruby, I learned scheme and java this semester (to whatever basic degree). The three languages cover quite the spectrum. I do think ruby is still my favorite, but I know that I’ll find uses for the other two. And no matter how many times I say I hate java, it’s had a good impact on me overall. At least having learned it, I can say I hate it with more than just vitriol.

    via Kjell Olsen1554 days ago

  5. 19 March 2006

    Getting out of hand

    1594 days ago

    So I’ve got a rails app up that is handling bigger datasets then I’d imagined it would. It’s not doing so well and now I need to go through and optimize things. Ugh. But check this out:

    
[kjell@ambrose:~/Sites/quizzer] % cat production.log | wc -l
 1541890

    That’s a 1.5 million line logfile. Again, Ugh. At least people are using and mostly liking my system. Too bad it looks like it’s ridiculously inefficient. But ah, the joy of computers. Just think about that – it comes close to blowing your mind.

  6. 18 January 2006

    1654 days ago

    12:38 < xal> sam-: 2 things
    12:38 < xal> a) you are nuts. those selectors are pure crack
    12:38 < xal> b) could you add them to actionpack so that update_javascripts grabs them?
    13:02 < madrobby> c) add more crack

    #rails-core

  7. 07 December 2005

    1696 days ago

    Ruby Book Sales Surpass Python

    Ruby book sales up 1552% since beginning of year (according to O’Reilly). I got the pickaxe 2 last december. I’m so ahead of the crowd.

    via Kjell Olsen1696 days ago

  8. 30 November 2005

    1703 days ago

    CollectionClosureMethod

    Neat ruby block syntaxes.

    via Kjell Olsen1703 days ago

  9. 10 November 2005

    1723 days ago

    On Unit Testing

    It’s such a simple thing. But the amount of confidence that it gives you to work on those complex pieces of code is priceless. If you aren’t using unit testing for at least some of your code, you’re really doing yourself a disservice. If anything, it’ll help you sleep better at night.

    via Kjell Olsen1723 days ago

  10. 08 November 2005

    1725 days ago

    PHP: Alternative syntax for control structures - Manual

    I’ve been working part time in php lately, and trying to make it as much like ruby as I can. It’s tolerable, but I haven’t had to do anything too hard or complicated yet. Won’t be converting anytime soon.

    via Kjell Olsen1725 days ago

  11. 20 October 2005

    1744 days ago

    A New Look at Test Driven Development

    Behavior driven development:

    It

    via Kjell Olsen1744 days ago

  12. 02 October 2005

    1763 days ago

    How To Become A Hacker

    To be a hacker, you have to develop some of these attitudes. But copping an attitude alone won’t make you a hacker, any more than it will make you a champion athlete or a rock star. Becoming a hacker will take intelligence, practice, dedication, and hard work.

    Work as intensely as you play and play as intensely as you work. For true hackers, the boundaries between “play”, “work”, “science” and “art” all tend to disappear, or to merge into a high-level creative playfulness.

    via Kjell Olsen1763 days ago

  13. 28 September 2005

    1766 days ago

    How to become a hacker

    Find something to hack, and hack it.

    via Kjell Olsen1766 days ago

  14. 26 September 2005

    1768 days ago

    Secrets of lightweight development success

    ...use ruby.

    via Kjell Olsen1768 days ago

  15. 18 September 2005

    1776 days ago

    Driving Metaphor

    ...describes ExtremeProgramming’s philosophy to me. The “right direction” for the project is irrelevant. What matters is that you pay attention, and that you are constantly adjusting. If you do this, there is no externally visible difference between the two.

    Drive with one hand

    It’s like a conversation

    via Kjell Olsen1776 days ago

  16. 07 September 2005

    1788 days ago

    Reduce the risk, hire from open source (Loud Thinking)

    Who cared about his GPA (or if he even went to college)? Or that he lived in Provo, Utah? Or how many years of experience he had programming? We didn’t. It’s simply unnecessary to rely on secondary factors when the work is available to extract values for the five variables listed above.

    via Kjell Olsen1788 days ago

  17. 15 August 2005

    1810 days ago

    DaveAstels.com - A New Look at Test Driven Development

    It

    via Kjell Olsen1810 days ago

  18. 17 July 2005

    1840 days ago

    How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary

    A look at important skills and how to learn them.

    via Kjell Olsen1840 days ago

  19. 23 June 2005

    1863 days ago

    Mike Clark's Weblog

    Rails kicks butt.

    In much the same way that the web took off because of “View Source”, Rails is taking off because it lowers the barrier to entry and holds nothing back.

    Having learned html and css by viewing the source, I can say that rails works much the same. I love open source, and it makes doing things for a kid with little programming experience like myself a piece of cake.

    via Kjell Olsen1863 days ago

  20. 18 June 2005

    1868 days ago

    GPL Programming: A Lucrative Hobby || kuro5hin.org

    Easy to make money off gpl’d scripts, use directory sites like freshmeat or sourceforge to link back to your site, generating pagerank, and then selling ads. But I hate ads.

    via Kjell Olsen1868 days ago

  21. 05 June 2005

    1882 days ago

    Rails Day is over

    And I’m excited to see the numerous projects, but their site is down! At least they stayed up the 24 hours.

    Kjell Olsen1882 days ago

  22. 02 June 2005

    1884 days ago

    x180 / james duncan davidson: Rails a Few Weeks On

    Now, on to Rails. Rails is the most well thought-out web development framework I’ve ever used. And that’s in a decade of doing web applications for a living. I’ve built my own frameworks, helped develop the Servlet API, and have created more than a few web servers from scratch. Nobody has done it like this before.

    So rails, starting to get hot, huh?

    via Kjell Olsen1884 days ago

  23. 16 May 2005

    1901 days ago

    RedHanded • Hopscotching Arrays with Flip-Flops

    Here is some real computer code. Explained:

    John Wilder: the double-dot is a flip-flop operator when used in a conditional. The flip-flop is turned on by the first expression’s truth and turned off by the second expression’s truth. The tricky thing about the flip-flop is that it keeps the on/off state inside, so once it’s turned on by the opening expression, it says on until the closing expression is proven true. why the lucky stiff

    via Kjell Olsen1901 days ago

  24. 09 May 2005

    1908 days ago

    Index of /deobfu/

    Florian Groß goes over entries into some ruby obfuscation contest, and I don’t understand a word of it. I need to look at this and learn from it à l’avenir.

    via Kjell Olsen1908 days ago

  25. 28 April 2005

    1919 days ago

    Practical Common Lisp

    Nice comprehensive look at lisp – I should read this sometime. Also: hyper-cliki, a lisp wiki.

    via Kjell Olsen1919 days ago

  26. 29 March 2005

    Test-Driven Development

    Kent Beck

    1949 days ago

    A real clear look at what TDD is, and how to go about using it in writing your own software.

  27. 28 March 2005

    1950 days ago

    DNA Key to Decoding Human Factor (washingtonpost.com)

    “Most of the time this happens the password is some quirky word related to the suspect’s area of interests or hobbies,” Hansen said.
    Hansen recalled one case several years ago in which police in the United Kingdom used AccessData’s technology to crack the encryption key of a suspect who frequently worked with horses. Using custom lists of words associated with all things equine, investigators quickly zeroed in on his password, which Hansen says was some obscure word used to describe one component of a stirrup. ??2??

    Relying on a word-list approach to crack keys becomes far more complex when dealing with suspects who communicate using a mix of languages and alphabets. In Operation Firewall, for example, several of the suspects routinely communicated online in English, Russian and Ukrainian, as well as a mishmash of the Cyrillic and Roman alphabets. ??3??

    ...”steganography,” which involves hiding information by embedding messages inside other, seemingly innocuous messages, music files or images. ??3??

    via Kjell Olsen1950 days ago

  28. 11 March 2005

    1967 days ago

    Combining XMLHttpRequest and Rails to Produce More Efficient UIs

    A nice rails/ajax howto. Using, of course, the rails goodness that is Hieraki (man thats hard to spell). Here’s some more on rails and ajax, and also a demo of what dave has going on.

    Kjell Olsen1967 days ago

  29. 27 February 2005

    1979 days ago

    Regarding ruby and ruby on rails

    Interesting perspective on why ruby isn’t for new programmers – but it’s for me just because I don’t want to deal with C right now, and it’s real nice and quick.

    via Kjell Olsen1979 days ago

  30. 15 February 2005

    1991 days ago

    Routing: Native Ruby Rewriting | Hieraki

    Such a cool addition. I wish everything was as cool as rails.

    via Kjell Olsen1991 days ago

  31. 11 February 2005

    1995 days ago

    Unobtrusive Javascript

    I ned to get a better grip on javascript – and here looks like a great place to do it.

    via Kjell Olsen1995 days ago

  32. 02 February 2005

    2004 days ago

    Extreme Programming

    Nice wikified summary of the ideas/processes behind XP. (the c2 wiki freaking rocks)

    via Kjell Olsen2004 days ago

  33. 25 January 2005

    2012 days ago

    (24)Slash7: Really Getting Started in Rails

    A nice look from a beginners standpoint at rails in general.

    via Kjell Olsen2012 days ago

  34. 21 January 2005

    2017 days ago

    vpim - a library to manipulate vCards and iCalendars

    Address Book and iCal on the web in ruby, anyone?

    Kjell Olsen2017 days ago

  35. 18 January 2005

    2019 days ago

    JavaScript: The World's Most Misunderstood Programming Language

    What javascript is really about.

    via Kjell Olsen2019 days ago

  36. 17 January 2005

    Programming Ruby, 2nd Ed.

    2020 days ago

    An excellent book, both at introducing and documenting the language. Incredibly exhaustive, almost everything I’ve ever wondered about reading through bits of ruby got a mention or two and really cleared my head.

  37. 05 December 2004

    2063 days ago

    Free Programming and Computer Science Books

    Wow – a collection of books available for free over the greatness which is the internet. All kinds of interesting books.

    Kjell Olsen2063 days ago

  38. Also somewhat recently

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