This last week has seen a few posts on the necessity, or lack thereof, for good touch typing skills.We Are Typists First, Programmers Second - Jeff AtwoodIs Typing A Necessity For Programming? - Abhijit NadgoudaI originally was going to say something along the lines of "I think it depends on how you view programming."  I was then going to differentiate between whether you just view programming as a job (where you are looking to scrape by with minimum investment), or a skill/craft/ar... Read Full Story

You may only speak one language, but how well do you know your tools?  There are likely many similarities between learning a language and learning the tools you use daily.Today I was thinking about the difference between someone who is just learning a spoken language and someone who knows it well, and how this may at times be seen by their knowledge of it's vocabulary.  For example, imagine someone explaining "I need a tool that you use to hit those little metal things that connect t... Read Full Story

If you are working with Merb or DM you know that approximately a gazillion gems are involved.  When, for whatever reason, I want to remove them it is a pain to do by hand.Here is a simple script to help:#!/bin/bashprefix=$1gem list --local | grep $prefix  | awk '{ print $1 }' | xargs sudo gem uninstallI saved mine as remove_gem_by_prefix, gave it executable permissions and placed it in my path.Now I can issue the commands:$ remove_gem_by_prefix merbor $ remove_gem_by_prefix dmAnd they... Read Full Story

Inspired by Rein Henrichs Hack && Ship, I have created Git-O-Mator.Git-O-Mator is more name than these 2 simple scripts deserve, but what fun is naming small?Git-O-Mator can be found on GitHub, and contains the scripts new_repo and hack.  New_repoNew_repo was originally mentioned in the last blog post "Quick Remote Git Repository Creation Script", and has the syntax of:new_repo fooWhich will create a Git repository locally and on a remote host account that you configure.Hack... Read Full Story

If you are using Git for your source code management, GitHub is an awesome tool. It especially shines for public projects where you freely allow others to fork your code and possibly pull patches back in.Sometimes I'm just working on a project that I would prefer to keep in a private repository. GitHub provides paying accounts with such an option. However, I already have hosting accounts that are terribly underused. Here is a little script I use to create a remote git repository on on... Read Full Story

I went to compile Nginx on my laptop this evening, and couldn't find a how-to for Leopard. Well at least not on the first page or 2 of search results.Danger Weary Traveller!I happen to be running OS X version 10.5.4 build 9E17.  If you are running something different, these directions may fail.  In fact, for all I know your computer may actually blow-up.  Yes, as in burst into flames and melt into a smoldering heap of plastic mush.  Compiling stuff really is that scary.  Hide the childre... Read Full Story

Is education about memorizing facts? No, it's about learning to learn. It's about learning how to think."...developers today code in something called Python, but when I was in school C was all the rage. The need for reasoning, though, remains constant..." - Our Googley advice to students: Major in learning Read Full Story

You can define many-to-many associations using this syntax:#item.rbhas n, :things, :through => Resource#thing.rbhas n, :items, :through => ResourceIn this case it will create a table items_things to manage the assignments. Easy enough. Depending on the relationship you are mapping out, it may make more sense to use the :through => :model syntax.Now if you create an instance of an Item, you will get a method "things=". At first I thought this would be how you would assign... Read Full Story

I couldn't find an example at datamapper.org /docs for a parent child relationship.After a little searching, I found the answer in the integration tests.  Here is the example: class Node include DataMapper::Resource def self.default_repository_name ADAPTER end property :id, Integer, :serial => true property :name, String has n, :children, :class_name => 'Node', :child_key => [ :parent_id ] belongs_to :parent, :class_name => 'Node', :child_ke... Read Full Story

If you marshal data and then store it in a DB, make sure to either base64 encode it or store it in a binary data type (such as BLOB), otherwise it will probably cause errors. Read Full Story