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More books

Chris — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:58:07 +0000

Since my last post on books, I’ve read the following:

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov

I’m currently reading Dune by Frank Herbert - what a fantastic book! I also really enjoyed The Stars, Like Dust and so I picked up the Foundation Trilogy. I’m looking forward to that as well as continuing with more books in the Dune series.

SSH hopping

Chris — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:50:28 +0000

Recently, two of the servers I normally SSH into had to be locked down to where they can only be accessed from computers at the main office. Since I work remotely, this of course has been a bit of a pain. I’ve had to SSH into a work machine, and then SSH from there.

However, I’ve discovered there is a way to hop with SSH:

Now, I can simply type ssh remote and get to the remote machine. Very handy.

Note: Just for completeness, remember that SSH keys need to be properly configured on the “office” machine in order to connect from “office” to “remote”

ActiveRecord :joins

Chris — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:20:12 +0000

I didn’t know that the :joins option for ActiveRecord accepted named associations. This works perfectly when you want to join with a table to retrieve information without actually “including” the model. It also makes the query much simpler.

Just be sure to always use :select when using :joins, or joined tables may overwrite attributes primary table in the result (i.e. the id attribute).

jQuery ‘or’ function

Chris — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:40:10 +0000

I present a simple but useful jQuery ‘or’ selector function:

Books

Chris — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:05:57 +0000

My passion for programming outside of work is on an extended hiatus. I don’t have any good reason to continue working on current projects, so I’ve been using my time for other things. I’ve been enjoying my journey in the world of books, a passion I once had long ago (~10 years since my high school days, wow…).

So far, I’ve read the following:

Fahrenheit 451
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
- Life, the Universe and Everything
- So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Neuromancer
Count Zero

I tried to read Ender’s Game, but I was so wrapped up in Neuromancer at the time that I had to just return it. I’ll probably give it another shot soon, though. Right now, my list of books to read includes:

1984
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Foundation Series
Dune
Brave New World

That’s quite a list, really, especially since the Foundation Series is something like 14 volumes.

Shut up about the gems, Rails

Chris — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:48:18 +0000

Add this to config/environment.rb above the Rails::Initializer block:

Rails::VendorGemSourceIndex.silence_spec_warnings = true

Bask in the silence - no more “gem has no specification file” etc.

Switched to Wordpress

Chris — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:08:01 +0000

Here’s the thing: I simply don’t have enough time/motivation to work on my own blogging application (slate). Now, I can hopefully focus on the most important piece - the content. Even if no one reads it.