Caught In The Middle

I’ve been extremely busy past few weeks as I have to dive in and do some coding at work. While I missed some conveniences of using Visual Studio and C#, it’s now clear why people are saying that it’s fun to develop using Ruby on Rails. Unless you experience the pain, you’ll never appreciate the pleasure.

However, having been exposed to “the other side” of things are not necessarily a good thing. I feel like I’m caught in the middle. There are things that I wish I had when I develop in .NET and at the same time, there are things I miss when I code in Rails. One thing I don’t like about both frameworks is that they’re both extremely leaky (not always a bad thing though) as Chad Fowler once said. Sometimes not knowing is not a bad thing, but being caught in the middle is always bad.

Now, let me get back to work…

March 29, 2007 | Filed Under Rant

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Travel Adapter For MacBook & MacBook Pro

No, it’s not a trick photography, it’s a magsafe power adapter using a off-the-shelf power adapter. I know this is a blog about Ruby and Rails, but since so many of us are using Mac as the tool of choice, I thought I post this here.

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Here’s how this all started. I wanted to get a travel charger for using and charging my laptop on plane as well as in the car. However, because of the stupid magsafe crap, I couldn’t get anything that will work. Sure, Apple released air power adapter, but it won’t charge the battery and I sure didn’t want to risk damaging anything by plugging it in a car.

After looking everywhere, I came across http://www.mikegyver.com. However, I just couldn’t justify paying for their modified adapter. Considering the fact that I have all the skills necessary to take things apart, I decided to order their DIY manual for $10. The instruction was so simple that I couldn’t believe it. It was well worth the price I paid for and after a short visit to local Radio Shack, I got it all working.

The key is the cable shown here. With a generic in-line DC jack, I can use just about any power supply out there. HOWEVER, you have to know the voltage or you can potentially blow up your MacBook, literally.

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Since iGo Juice does not have enough watts for MacBook Pro, I just ordered Kensington 120W adapter for using and charging my MacBook Pro ANYWHERE! I now only need one power supply to carry around for any and all occasion, all at a fraction of what Apple charges for their POS. The best part is that it also charges my battery, not just power the computer. This is also so much better than carrying an inverter. I never even considered that as a solution.

Here’s a big WARNING!!! This operation is not for a beginner. It may cost you more if you make a single mistake. If you don’t know how to solder, don’t even try it. My recommendation is to purchase the cable from MikeGyver.

March 18, 2007 | Filed Under Tutorial

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Are You A Rubyhead Looking For Work?

My previous dealings with headhunters haven’t been good. They’re very pushy and don’t care much about the candidates or even their clients. Just about all of them don’t even bother reading your resume or they’re illiterate. Having said that, I found someone that is just the opposite of what I’ve been dealt with. Funny thing is, I wasn’t even looking that aggressively.

Brian Mariani of mirRorPlacement.com is a pleasant surprise in a field that is filled with scums. He actually read my resume, saw my websites, and took his time to discuss potential opportunities with both his clients and me. He also listened, a rare trait in modern day recruiters.

I highly recommend mirRorPlacement.com if you’re a Rubyhead/Railshead and want to venture out. You’ll be pleasantly surprised. If you’re interested in hiring a Rubyhead, contact Brian.

March 12, 2007 | Filed Under Review

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Java/Flex eSeminar

I know this site is about Ruby, but this is a great presentation by Bruce Eckel and James Ward.

Great lessons to be learned here, especially using Flash as a front-end to a Rails application (ok, this seminar is using JSP, but same applies to Rails).

March 7, 2007 | Filed Under Tutorial, Video

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Net::POP3

Let’s say you’re creating an application that integrates email functionalities. Here’s something you can look it up in RDoc to make your life extremely easy. Net::POP3 gives everything you need to retrieve emails. Take a look. I’m just waiting for someone to make a web-based email client that doesn’t suck. I hate using IMAP and can’t stand having to sync my emails from different computers. Wouldn’t it be great if the retrieved emails are stored in a database for…

March 7, 2007 | Filed Under Rant

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Indicator of Rails’ Success

I once heard from an interview of Allan Odgaard that the serial number is actually a counter of TextMate sold. So it got me thinking since I just purchased a copy of TextMate for my new MacBook at work. When I caved in and bought TextMate for my personal computer, my serial number was in 9000’s. Now, the serial number I just got is well over 43k.

If there’s any one indicator for Rails’ success, this has to be it. Let’s face it, who else uses TextMate?

March 7, 2007 | Filed Under Rant

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What A Week!

You know I had a busy week when I didn’t post anything. I’m just relaxing and started to work on the tutorial video. I just hope that people get the jokes.

March 3, 2007 | Filed Under News

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