The giggle loop

blog moved...

2006-09-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

To here: http://www.disjointthoughts.com/

Ruby in Steel

2006-08-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

SapphireSteel Software claims that its Ruby IDE will have "...IntelliSense (‘code completion’) support in future releases of Steel." I will be interested to see how well they can manage that one. Ruby in Steel FAQ.

The Lost Mac Ads

2006-07-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

These things are awesome: http://www.bestweekever.tv/2006/07/07/bwe-mac-ads/ They fall right in line with the comments I had made about the mac ads.

please sir, can i have some more

2006-07-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

Time, money and space: these are three things that it seems you can never have enough of. In reality the more of these things we have the more of them we use, but they aren't required. If I have two weeks to completely a project at work, but the project itself only requires one week of coding. Chances are I will spend the first week reading digg... maybe a bit of the second week... and at the last minute buckle down and get the project finished ontime to meet the deadline. Even though I didn't need all that time to finish the project, I found a way to fill up that time. Various side Ruby or Rails projects I'm working on will probably never get finished (or at least to a point where other people could use them) because I have an unlimited amount of time to work on them. I know at one point I survived happily on a college wage. I lived in various cheap housing and didn't own a car, but I was happy. Now that I have a "real" job and am making money, I've found ways to use up that money: Nice car, nice apartment, etc. etc. Do I really need those things? No. But since I have the money I've found ways to spend it. My parents own a 360 acre farm (which they are trying to sell btw, so if you want to farm pistachios in the middle of az drop me a line) with TONS of space. They collect everything. Every single old broken piece of machinary gets kept. They have lots of space out there and they would use every inch if they could. When I moved into a two bedroom apartment in Phoenix, I didn't have nearly enough stuff to fill it. After a year it had slowly filled up, and moving from there into a one bedroom was a total bitch. Once I tossed out the extra crap I didn't really need and got settled into the one bedroom, I realized it wasn't that bad. I offloaded a bunch of crap I didn't need, and just held onto the things which were really important to me. I feel much more lean and efficient living in a one bedroom (kinda like moving from Java to Ruby) so much more that I'm trying to go above and beyond just getting rid of enough stuff to fit. I'm getting rid of everything I don't need. I think it would be awesome to eventually get to a point where everything I really need could fit into a single car. At that point I could pick up and go anyplace without the huge hassles that usually come with moving. Agile living in a sense ;) Hopefully at someday I will be able to manage my money and time like I am trying to manage my space. It's definately possible for me to do, I think I just need a swift kick in the ass or a strong shove in the right direction.

help from india

2006-07-06T22:18:00.000-07:00

Documentation says: Support for Windows, Linux, and OS X "So we are supporting Windows, Linux or any OS?" Umm, yeh. Something like that.

my weekend project

2006-07-04T15:20:00.000-07:00

So I was bored this weekend and decided to install SUSE on my laptop. And of course my love for eye candy made me install Xgl as well. It definately took a little work to get everything working, but I must say it is very cool. The hardest part was getting my wifi card to work correctly. I spent several hours fiddeling, browsing forums and wikis... but I couldn't get the card to find any of the access points I knew it should. Finally, right when I was about to say "SCREW THIS", I pressed the little wifi button (I SWEAR I tried this many times before) on the top of the keyboard... the little blue wifi light came on, a little notification came up that I was being connected to my wireless network, and bam! I was online... The simpler the problem is, the harder it is to find. I've only installed Linux on one other machine, and it wasn't my main machine that I relied upon. I always stayed away from using Linux fulltime because there isn't much love for Linux gamers, at least compared to Windows. But now I have a laptop that I don't want to install games on. All I want to do on my laptop is program and browse the web. As long as it runs eclipse and firefox I'm happy, and suse seems to handle both of those just fine.

voices of the simpsons

2006-06-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

delicious

2006-06-29T17:11:00.000-07:00

I added a little JavaScript widget to the right side of the blog to show my last 5 del.icio.us posts. If you're really interested in what I'm reading you can subscribe to the rss feed. It seems to be very easy to fill your blog up with useless crap. A common example of that would be 99% of the myspace profile pages that exist. I can't help but want to add things that I think are useful though. What I would really like is to have the whole right side bar disappear until the user moused over a certain icon or area of the screen. Keep it nice and clean until the reader wants to see more. Hmm...

golf?

2006-06-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

I never learned how to play golf (except my brother and I seeing how far we could drive on the farm, then using the quad to ride around picking up the balls). My father wanted me to learn how to play because he felt that all the big business deals were made on the golf course. If I didn't learn how to play, he thought I would run into a glass ceiling or something. Every now and then I wish I knew how to play, but I don't think it has effected my career. In related news: Woot (who typically sells techy/geeky/nerdy things) has a driver for sale.

missing gems/plugins

2006-06-28T16:49:00.000-07:00

The designer of a project I'm working on decided to use the RedCloth ruby gem in the project we're working on. He installed the gem on his local machine and added "require 'RedCloth'" to environment.rb. Now, since he installed a gem and ruby gems by default are stored in the ruby installation directory, the source repository did not contain the RedCloth library. Unforunately I forgot to get the RedCloth gem. So when I updated my project source from SVN the project broke output in development.log. I eventually figured out that I was missing the gem. So I downloaded the gem, then moved the whole RedCloth folder into the vendor/plugins directory of the rails project. The lack of error messages pointing me to the "require 'RedCloth'" was annoying to say the least. Maybe the require statement should be moved someplace else? Someplace after the logger has been initialized maybe? I wonder if other error/issues in enviroment.rb will make WEBrick die out too. Maybe you can start WEBrick with some advanced debugging for these kinds of situations? Hmm, I guess I should do a little research...

The Sock Gap

2006-06-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

Jeff (from Coupling): I mean, where exactly do you take your socks off? My advice is to take them off right after your shoes, and before your trousers. That’s the sock gap. Miss it, and suddenly you’re a naked man in socks. No self-respecting woman will ever let a naked man in socks do the squelchy with her. Youtube link

AIM Phoneline

2006-06-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

I signed up for a local phone number via AOL's free voip service. It's supposed to allow you to accept unlimited incoming calls. Combine this with Skype's free outgoing calls and you're all set. The problem is AOL sucks! I signed up for the service, downloaded and installed the latest AIM client and tried calling myself from my cell. The AIM client notifies me that there's an incoming call, but when I click on the Answer button it just sits there trying to connect my call. From the calling end, the line keeps ringing until it goes to voice mail. I tried running it on my work pc and my laptop without sucess. There also seems to be some bugs when you run two AIM clients at the same time and try to answer a call from one. I think it's still in beta, so I guess I can't be too harsh. I would say it's definately worth signing up for a local number incase there's a limit on how many the give out. But I would wait for the service to mature before attempting to use it.

How IT Projects Really Work

2006-06-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

Linky

mac ads

2006-06-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

I love the mac vs pc ads that apple has created, but I like Ctrl+Alt+Del's take on them more. I won't start on why I don't have a mac yet, but I will say that it seems like a large portion of mac sales are because it's "cool" to have a mac. The mac ads seem to just reinforce the idea that macs are the "cool" thing to have. And the fact that any of the black mac books even sell is just retarded. Computers as a fashion accessory? Ok, I guess that's fine... as long as it doesn't effect performance or future advancements of the hardware and software.

Ingredients for Web 2.0 Success

2006-06-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

Awesome presentation: http://notabug.com/w2/

Kitten vs Frontrow

2006-06-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

Suddenly I want a Mac and a kitten.

ActionMailer debugging

2006-06-06T22:29:00.000-07:00

I started playing around with ActionMailer a few days ago. I followed the wiki tutorial without much trouble. Well, with the illusion of no troubles. When I started testing the code, nothing seemed to work. I didn't receive any of the emails that ActionMailer appeared to be sending. My development.log looked fine, my ActionMailer configuration seemed ok, but still nothing worked. It felt a bit like stumbling around a dark room, stubbing my toes on various peices of furniture, but unable to find a light switch. Well here's your light switch: ActionMailer::Base.raise_delivery_errors = true Drop that line in your development.rb and you'll see all the errors generated by ActionMailer. The wiki tutorial doesn't mention this. The fact that errors are turned off by default seems a little weird to me... I personally would think that errors would be on by default.

Nintendo DS Lite Mini

2006-05-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

I picked up a DS Lite today at Target as part of their "early release". Here are some first impressions. So a little background first: I've been trying to figure out how to integrate gaming in to my ever busy schedule. Historically I've been a big PC gamer, but I've found that a lot of PC games tend to lend themselves to long gaming sessions. Just the amount of time it takes to start up my gaming pc, load a game, and actually get to playing (and having fun) is ridiculous. So I've been thinking about going back to console gaming (the last console I bought was the PS1), but I want to wait for either the Wii or the PS3. In the meantime I decided to try the DS. I'm hoping that the games will be easy to pickup when I have a few minutes, and I'm also hoping that they'll be new and interesting. Size: Small when it's closed. Easy to carry around. Not small enough to carry around in my pocket (anything bigger than an ipod is too bulky for me to pocket). Finish/Case: The outside finish definately reminds me of Apple, nice and shiney but quickly gets smuggy. The plastic on the inside (around the controlls and screens) is different than the outside, it's a flat white that feels cheap in comparison to the outside finish. Screens: Nice and bright. The bottom screen doesn't look too much worse than the top dispite the fact that it's a touch screen. You can't change the screen brightness without going back to the DS main menu, so you can't change the brightness mid-game. The touch screen seems accurate and fast to respond. Sound: Great! The dual speakers offer much better sound than my GB Advance SP. Controls: They feel a little bit cramped. I only noticed it when playing Mario Kart where you have to hold down a single button for long periods of time. Not any worse than other handhelds I've played (haven't tried the PSP though). Definately not as comfortable as your standard console controller. Battery Life: Not sure yet... still going after a few hours of playing. So far I think I give it an 8.5-9 out of 10. The only things I don't like so far is the cheapish feeling plastic on the inside, the crappy screen brightness control, and the slightly cramped feeling controls when playing certain games. I'm curious to see how the bottom screen holds up. I've seen some regular DS's that have touch screens that look like scratching posts. So far I'm really liking it though.

retarded trademark of the day

2006-05-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

And the winner is O'Reilly! Seriously, wtf m8?

One sweet ride

2006-05-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

corvette concept
Originally uploaded by boostism.

Stopped by the Scottsdale Pavillions a couple weekends ago, I hadn't gone in months because there was a little drama going on between the "imports" and "domestics". People were trying to get the ricer's kicked out, but trying to define ricer is like trying to define Web2.0. Anywho, it Pavillions was decent. There was as small showing of subies, but this beauty was my favorite. A Corvette concept car. Based on the styling of the 60s Corvette, but internals of a 2006. Total hotness.

Grid7 Blog

2006-05-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

The Grid7 Blog is now live. The whole site received a revamp as well. Check it out.

acts_as_searchable

2006-05-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

Looking at implementing full-text searching in your Rails app? Look no further than acts_as_searchable. Using Hyper Estraier, it allows you to easily implement full text searching. To setup acts_as_searchable, I basically followed the instructions over here. It was fairly self explainitory and easy to setup for Windows, but a couple of things caused me confusion:

The yaml listed on the site doesn't work because of the spacing. The "host" and "node" elements should be children of the "estraier" element NOT "port".
I couldn't get the plugin to install (I may not have svn installed correctly?), so I ended up installing the hyper estraier gem using "gem install acts_as_searchable"
- Since I didn't get the plugin to install I had to add "require 'acts_as_searchable'" to my model.
Once the hyper estraier server is running, you need to execute the re-index code. Run ActiveRecord.reindex! where ActiveRecord is the name of your model. I ended up creating a controller method that I could hit and reindex everything to get started (not a good idea for production).
A bunch of files and directories get created upon reindexing. The name of the directory reflect the name of the index that's being used. They are created in the current working directory.
The server needs to be started from the same working directory each time. If you start the server from a different directory, you will not see any of the users or nodes that you created from previous sessions.

Hopefully this helps anyone trying to setup acts_as_searchable or looking for a full text search engine for their Rails app.

spore and robin williams

2006-05-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

taskbar shuffle

2006-05-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

If you're anything like me and have a million windows open at once (and you're running windows... yes, i know, how lame), check out the Taskbar Shuffle. It's a neat little mod that allows you to drag and reorder windows that are on your taskbar.

ipod maps

2006-05-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

Yahoo created a sweet little app that lets you add directions to your ipod: http://www.ipod-directions.com/ It uses the photo ablum on the 5g ipod (and maybe earlier versions?) to display text directions followed by pics of map. It's pretty sweet, another great use for my ipod. Now if they'd only make a mic for the 5g ipod I'd be happy.

technical debt

2006-04-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

I was listening to the Ruby on Rails podcast and a term I had never heard mentioned was brought up: Technical Debt. One of the things I constantly struggle with is how to explain the benefits of doing something a certain way to people who make decisions, but are not technical. Technical Debt is a perfect term to imply that doing something quick and dirty up front will cause real costs in the future.

squaw_4-25 053

2006-04-26T19:49:00.000-07:00

squaw_4-25 053
Originally uploaded by boostism.

Pic of Laura on Squaw Peak with Camelback in the background. Nice short hike after work... it's too bad that so many people hike it.

squaw_4-25 034

2006-04-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

squaw_4-25 034
Originally uploaded by boostism.

Pic from the top of squaw peak, Laura and I hiked it yesterday after work.

only a matter of time

2006-04-21T18:21:00.000-07:00

My schedule from week to week usually looks something like this: Monday: Work @ eldorado until 5. Go home & work on Grid7 until 10 or go to Refresh/Ruby Group until 11. Tuesday: Work until 5. Hike until 7. Go home & Grid7 until 10. Wednesday: Work until 5. Go home & work on Grid7 until 10. Thursday: Work until 5. Movie night until 11. Friday: Work until 5. Happy hour/night out. Saturday: Day Hike or Grid7 work. Night out. Sunday: Grid7 Meeting or Day Hike. As it is... I can't find enough time to get caught up at my day job and Grid7. At the same time I try to find time for myself, but it's hard unless it's part of my weekly schedule. I need to take some time off of work soon...

what kind of blog are you?

2006-04-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

I've written a bit of Ruby code that uses method missing to help you determine the type of blog given a url. So you can do something like: blog_url = BlogUrl.new('http://thegiggleloop.blogspot.com') if blog_url.blogger? #do something for a blogger blog elsif blog_url.whatever? #do whatever end This is the first thing I've written that I really feel takes advantage of Ruby. Up until now I've felt like I've just been writing Java code in Ruby.

a funny convo I had with "Bob"

2006-04-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

Bob: you need to learn to do what I do to handle workloads like that me: seriously... are you still working, what, three jobs? Bob: yea... here's the key. YOu start drinking at like... say 7am, by 9 you don't give a fuck what's going on and by 11 you forgot what needed to get done, but you are HILARIOUS around the office, so no one can stay mad at you. me: that's... AWESOME! Bob: tell me about it. Your mileage may vary with Laura though... just wear a sports cup as insurance. me: hahah Bob's name was changed to hide his laziness, but in all seriousness I have no free time.

the pleasant sound of falling water

2006-04-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

Is it a bad thing if I come into work Monday morning, and can hear the sound of running water coming from the ceiling vent? It sounds like one of those small water falls that some people have. The sound doesn't bother me, actually I kinda enjoy it. But I wonder where the water is coming from... and where it's going. Ohh well.

Saturday's Hike

2006-04-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

me_at_the_top1
Originally uploaded by boostism.

Here's a pic of me at the top of Siphon Draw in the Superstitions. Great hike. Went with Nick and Holly.

firefox flick

2006-04-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

This is awesome!

calendars

2006-04-13T22:37:00.000-07:00

Ok... the two things I can't figure out how to do in google calendar: 1. Display more than 2 events per day when viewing an whole Month. 2. Creating an RSS feed, or something similar... espically something I can add to my blog. EDIT: Settings->Calendars->Shared: Edit Settings->Calendar Details This gets you RSS and ICal links. EDITNUMERODOS: The number of events displayed per day is dependant on your screen resolution. So on my work pc and laptop I'm screwed... unless there some way I can trick it into thinking I have a higher resolution, hmmm.

google calendar

2006-04-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

Google calendar has gone public. It's very slick, and seems to mimic Outlook's calendar fairly closely. At first glance I liked the feel of 30boxes over google. But with some minor setting tweaks, you can get the same look and feel out of google. I'm in the process of moving my schedule over to google calendar now.

woot off

2006-04-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

Woot off tonight/tomorrow. Must.. resist... urge.... to buy useless crap.

password protected rss feeds

2006-04-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

Bloglines seems to be the rss reader of choice, but it doesn't work if your feeds are password protected. The best reader I've found is the Firefox plugin Wizz RSS. Seems to work fairly well. Ohh, and surfing the 'net is so 2004. Feeds are the shiznitz.

ugly cars

2006-04-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

Not your everyday el camino. This is the worst looking POS I've seen in awhile.

ninjas!

2006-03-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

OMG, this is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time: Ask A Ninja.

watcha gonna do

2006-03-10T16:49:00.000-07:00

I've added a snippet of my schedule to the right side of my blog. It links to this slick calendar/scheduling web app called 30boxes. I've always had trouble keeping a calendar/todo list, I think mostly because it wasn't in a location where I could access it from anywhere... and I hate carrying things around with me (see palm, day planner, notebook, etc). We'll see if I can manage to keep this one up-to-date.

myspace

2006-03-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

I think that every single myspace page I've seen has given me a headache within 15 seconds. How is it possible for so many people to create such fugly webpages?

evolution of the programmer

2006-02-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

This is so true.

test of deepest sender

2006-02-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

I'm testing out a post from a firefox addon called Deepest Sender.

stumbleupon

2006-02-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

A friend sent me a link to StumbleUpon the other day. At first glance it appeared to be some sort of cross between delicious, light blogging, and some automatic social network creation. It allows you to link/tag urls like delicious, and it also lets you blog about them to some extent. It also has a list of "friends" that it thinks you would be interested in. But as far as I can tell the "friends" list is anyone of the opposite sex, roughly the same age group, and in your same area code or close to it. It would make sense, that it would suggest people who tagged the same sites, or have the same interests.... but this is just lame.

Grid7Labs

2006-02-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

Grid7Labs is a sort of side project I'm a part of. Outside of my day job, I'm going to be working with a great group of people over at Grid7 getting some good ideas off the ground. And I'll actually get to do some real Rails hacking, instead of this fake Rails (or as we like to call it here in the office, BRoR, for Bastardized Ruby on Rails). Hopefully I'll have more time to write about Grid7 later... until then check out the side.

Fhqwhgads

2006-02-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Someone needs to hurry up and create an instant sleep machine. I just don't have time for everything + sleep.

PowerPoint

2006-02-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

PowerPoint presentations for me have always felt long and boring. That's just my general reaction to PowerPoint. I've sat through enough of these horrible presentations, that whenever I hear "PowerPoint" I instantly groan inwardly. I spent a year as a TA for the UofA teaching intermedate Java courses. At the UofA, the undergrad CS TAs got to actually lecture for 1 hour a week and host lab hours for a subsection of the class. I always attempted to stay away from PowerPoints as much as possible, I tried to get as much interaction going within the class as possible. But this presentation is amazing. It's not quite a PowerPoint, it's a Keynote presentation... but it's the same concept and has the same pitfalls in unskilled hands. But no... the presentation itself is amazing. A coworker labeled this kind of presenting as almost a rapping feel... to me it feels like a movie, a short fast moving film perhaps. In anycase, it captures you attention like nothing else I've seen. I encourage you to watch this, even if you know nothing on the subject matter.

refresh phoenix

2006-02-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

I went to the Refresh Phoenix meeting last night. If you've never heard of Refresh I encourge you google it and see if you have a local group setup. Last night's meeting was great. We had a guest speaker, Adrian Sannier, the Technology Officer of ASU. Not only did he cover some really interesting topics, but he presented them in a way that was so entertaining and fun to listen to/watch that it felt he could have been talking about anything and I would have enjoyed it. This was the second Refresh Phoenix meet I've attended. I've enjoyed both of them... and plan on attending them every month if at all possible. I've met some great people, and have already found a group of people with whom I will be working on some side projects on. However the thing I really like about it is the feeling of being part of a community. It's hard to describe, but it reminds me of being in college again. I'm sure everyone's experiences in college varies, but being in Computer Science meant that you were surrounded by geeks who love technology and often times love to discuss it. Once graduated and started working, it feels like I've lost touch with that group of people (not specifically the people I went to college with) who love technology and like to just hang out and discuss random things. Maybe it's just the place I work. Maybe I'm just crazy. But hanging out with people I've meet through Refresh Phoenix reminds me of hanging out with Steve and Ron after a long night of working on Automata homework.

aaaaahhh!

2006-02-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

Blogging for me is like pulling teeth. I just never get around to it... and when I do it feel like I'm not getting anything done. I guess when I really enjoy writing is when I have a block of time where I can sit down, gather my thoughts, and put them all together in some sort of corherent text. But most of the time I am so busy running around taking care of random crap that I don't have time to think... much less gather my thoughts. Dispite this, I will attempt to blog more often. More at lower quality is better than none at all, right?

bubble bobble

2005-12-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=178

ruby, singleton, locking, etc

2005-12-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

I came across the following problem the other day: implementing the singleton pattern for a multi-threaded ruby app. Turns out that ruby has a singleton class that does just that...

require 'singleton'
class SingletonTest
  include Singleton
  def initialize
    puts 'start initialize '
    sleep 2
    puts 'end initialize'
  end
end

a = b = c = d = nil


t1 = Thread.new {
  a = SingletonTest.instance
  b = SingletonTest.instance
}

t2 = Thread.new {
  c = SingletonTest.instance
  d = SingletonTest.instance
}

t1.join
t2.join

puts a.to_s
puts b.to_s
puts c.to_s
puts d.to_s

This works perfect. No race conditions occur and only one instance of the object gets created. However I couldn't seem to figure out how to get the object to use anything besides that default initialize method without any arguments. I needed something that would accept values that would be used when the object is first created. I'm not sure why I couldn't get the initialize method to accept arguments, it seems to me that by defining initialize myself would be enough but I guess not. So I went about implementing this myself...

class SingletonTest
  @@singleton_instance = nil
  def SingletonTest.get_instance
    puts 'getting instance'
    if(!@@singleton_instance)
      sleep 2
      puts '  instance created'
      @@singleton_instance = SingletonTest.new
    else
      puts '  returning already created instance'
    end
    return @@singleton_instance
  end
end

st2 = st1 = nil

t1 = Thread.new {st1 = SingletonTest.get_instance}
t2 = Thread.new {st2 = SingletonTest.get_instance}

t1.join
t2.join

puts st1.to_s
puts st2.to_s

This uses a class variable and method. It works fine in single threaded application, but feel flat on its face with multiple threads. So I started poking around with some of the locking mechanisms that ruby has... I started off with monitors:

require 'monitor'

class TestSingleton < Monitor
  @@test_object = nil
  
  def getInstance(s)
    synchronize do
      if !@@test_object
        return @@test_object = TestObject.new
      else
        return @@test_object
      end
    end
  end
end

class TestObject
  def initialize
  end
end

The problem I found with the ruby implementation of monitors is the fact you have to extent the monitor class and then create a new instance of the class before you can synchronize a block of code. So you can't use 'synchronize do' inside of a class method (unless perhaps you were dealing with an instance of the class), which just makes things messy here. So I threw out the monitor idea and tried using ruby's Mutex class:

require 'thread'

class SingletonTest
  @@mutex = Mutex.new
  @@object_instance = nil
  def SingletonTest.get_instance s
    puts 'getting instance '+s.to_s
    @@mutex.synchronize do
      if !@@object_instance
        puts '  creating instance'
        sleep 2
        @@object_instance = SingletonTest.new
      end
      return @@object_instance
    end
  end
end

st1 = st2 = st3 = st4 = nil

t1 = Thread.new {st1 = SingletonTest.get_instance '1'}
t2 = Thread.new {st2 = SingletonTest.get_instance '2'}

t1.join
t2.join

puts st1.to_s
puts st2.to_s

Instead of extending a class like monitors, you just create an instance of Mutex and use it to create synchronized blocks of code. This seems to work for me. I'm not sure that this is the best implementation, but until I find something better this will do.

Things that make me laugh

2005-10-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

Best webcomic ever: http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=115

2005-09-17T22:55:00.000-07:00

That's all for now, kinda tired after 14 hours of shaking trees.

2005-09-17T22:53:00.000-07:00

Weekend at the farm to help the parents havest... yay..........

work blah-ness and JAI's ScrollingImagePanel

2005-09-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't had time to work on Ruby. I got pulled into a project that should have been finished weeks before I started it. It's a reimplementation of an image viewer originally written in DB/C, but ran into performance issues which could not be resolved. So, we're rewritting it in Java. The app requires me to display various tiff files to the user. I found that the JAI (https://jai.dev.java.net/) library allows you to read, display, etc, tiff images in Java. Nice library, let's you do tons of things, but horrid documentation. I was looking around for tutorials and examples, and I found a lot of people using this ScrollingImagePanel to do the display. That's nice, but it's deprecated. Obviously all these tutorials were written when such was not the case. The javadoc for the class states that ScrollingImagePanel is deprecated, but doesn't tell you what you're supposed to use in it's place. Nice. After several minutes of google searching I find that the DisplayJAI class is the replacement. So here's the thing, if you're going to write something that other people are going to use make sure there's decent documentation. Poor documentation makes me a sad panada.

Google

2005-08-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

Google is taking over the internet one step at a time: http://www.google.com/talk/

2005-08-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

"Ruby is the language Buddha would have programmed in." --http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/rexml/rdoc/ Ruby is seriously easy to read. Lovin it.

Ruby and such

2005-08-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

Ruby is a sexy language. I'll write more on it later, for now I'm just making my way through a couple of basic Ruby tutorials before I start taking a serious crack at Rails. Ohh, and I need to get myself a trunkmonkey http://www.trunkmonkey.com/

quotes

2005-08-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.combobulate.com/techquotes.htm My favorites: Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning. -Rich Cook Computers are like bikinis. They save people a lot of guesswork. -Sam Ewing

tgif... kinda...

2005-08-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

Gawd, why are some people so thick. If you were given $10,000 dollars and were told that you had to drive across the country (and you didn't have a car) or else something really bad would happen, what would you do? Probably go out to your local car dealer and buy a car and drive across the country, right? That's the COMMON SENSE thing to do here. You wouldn't spend the 10k on a bunch of random car pieces and BUILD YOUR OWN FUCKING CAR FROM SCRATCH! Of course there may be some that would do the later. One of the new major projects I'm working on recently decided to go from thick client/server to a web app. Great. I love web apps. Tis what I do best. A web app, 95% chance it's gonna be written in Java. Java web app... COMMON SENSE tells me the best technologies here would be JSF, Spring, and Hiberate. If you'd really want to, you could use Struts... but it seems to be dying off. Could also use Tapestry. Probably throw in Tiles or Sitemesh as well... and spice it up with a little AJAX. The lead programmer/achitect on this project is writing the web app in Python. At least that's what he's written the first few prototyped pages in. I guess he plans on re-implementing it in Java, but he doesn't plan on using any of the technologies I've mentioned. He's going to write his own, then make all of us other programmers work with his homebrewed tools/frameworks. Does he have any good reason to do this? No. Has he ever heard of any of the things I suggested we use? No. Why do people do this? Why do people want to build their own shit when there's stuff already out there that does the EXACT same thing, and is free, and is stable? Maybe I should start drinking at work. I think that would help keep me from getting pissed of at this kinda crap.

A good read.

2005-08-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

I want to believe: http://www.venganza.org/

2005-08-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

My current reading material... I was finally inspired to start reading this after listening to David Thomas give a keynote talk.

2005-07-28T14:03:00.001-07:00

Last weekend's project.

2005-07-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

Pic of the spray bar.

2005-07-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

Laura freezing the intercooler.

2005-07-25T13:38:00.000-07:00

A $50 haircut... worth it? (sorry for the crappy phone pic).

2005-07-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

New haircut.

The Giggle Loop explained

2005-07-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

Ripped from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giggle_loop: The Giggle Loop is a state of mind invented by Steven Moffat, the writer of the BBC comedy series Coupling. The idea is somewhat simple and occurs during those annoying moments of silence and relies on incredibly bad timing. Patrick: What's a giggle loop? Jeff: Don't Ask... to know about the giggle loop... is to become part OF the giggle loop! Steve: I think we can take it Jeff: You're not ready for the giggle loop Jeff: Basically, it's like a feedback loop, you're somewhere quiet, there's people... it's a solemn occasion, a wedding!.. no, it's a minutes silence for someone who's died! Steve: Right? Jeff: Minutes Silence, ticking away... the giggle loop begins! Suddenly, out of nowhere this thought comes into your head, the worst thing you could possibly do during a minutes silence is laugh! As soon as you think that, you almost do laugh! Automatic reaction but you don't... you control yourself! You're fine! But then you think how terrible it would have been if you'd laugh out loud in the middle of a minute silence and so you nearly do it again! But this time, it's an even bigger laugh, then you think how awful this bigger laugh would have been, and so you nearly laugh again only this time, it's a very big laugh, let this bastard out and you get whiplash! ... and suddenly, you're in the middle of this completely silent room, and your shoulders are going like they're drilling the road, and what do you think of this situation? Oh dear Christ, you think it's funny!

2005-07-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

Went to Chris & Kate's wedding last Saturday. This is the groom's cake... best, cake, ever.

2005-05-03T08:32:00.001-07:00

close up

2005-05-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

My weekend project.

2005-04-26T01:15:00.000-07:00

Eventually Josie gives up, but Monkey keeps at it. He'll catch that mouse pointer someday...

2005-04-26T01:14:00.001-07:00

Nope ;)

2005-04-26T01:14:00.000-07:00

Maybe from up here?

2005-04-26T01:13:00.001-07:00

Josie gives it a try.

2005-04-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

2005-04-26T01:12:00.000-07:00

Monkey just doesn't understand why he can't catch the mouse.

2005-04-26T01:11:00.000-07:00

Monkey waking up to see what's going on.

2005-04-26T01:10:00.000-07:00

Josie has taken an interest in mouse pointers...

2005-04-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

My sweetie.

2005-04-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

Welding up the exhaust last night.

2005-04-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

Got the truck (mostly) back together. Seems to be running well again, but we'll see how long this fuel pump lasts =/

2005-04-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

One last pic of Jason's jeep as the new owners drive it off.

2005-04-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

A green ball found floating in the tank... I have no clue what it's for or if it's even supposed to be there.

2005-04-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

Fuel tank.

2005-04-23T12:27:00.000-07:00

Bed removed, and fuel tank dropped.

2005-04-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

My truck we're trying to fix this weekend... 89 Dodge Shelby Dakota with a funky fuel system.

2005-04-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

My weird bother Jason.

2005-04-23T01:01:00.000-07:00

...and one of the orchard.

2005-04-23T01:00:00.000-07:00

These pics are from awhile ago, but you get the idea.

2005-04-23T00:58:00.000-07:00

Back on the farm for the weekend.

2005-04-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

Monkey and Josie.

2005-04-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

Ass and cow.

2005-04-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

;)