Ubuntu Linux (10.10)

# aptitude install openjdk-6-jre-headless openjdk-6-jdk
# JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk gem install rjb

Mac OS X 10.6.4

# JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home gem install rjb

This assumes you are in a shared hosting situation, and do not have root access and cannot edit the Apache configuration files directly.

Your setup

Suppose you have a site, www.ilikefish.com. Its DocumentRoot is /var/www/ilikefish.com. You then create a subdomain, wiki.ilikefish.com, with a DocumentRoot of /var/www/ilikefish.com/wiki.

Configuring Apache

1. In /var/www/ilikefish.com/.htaccess, set up a redirect
   

   RedirectMatch /wiki/(.*) http://wiki.ilikefish.com/$1

2. In /var/www/ilikefish.com/wiki/.htaccess, set up rewrite rules:
   

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

Configuring MediaWiki

1. In LocalSettings.php, set the following variables:
   

   $wgScriptPath = "";
   $wgArticlePath = "/$1";
   $wgUsePathInfo = true;
   $wgLogo = "/my_fish_logo.png";
   $wgScriptExtension = ".php";

Apple’s online store has refurbished Macs for sale. These are often a very good deal — today’s selections range from 13-26% off the original prices.

Refurbished Macs carry the same full one-year warranty as new ones and are eligible for the free printer rebate and AppleCare. (Aside: if you don’t need the support, your credit card’s extended warranty protection many be enough.)

But if you look right now, there’s only one refurbished MacBook:

No, Apple hasn’t sold every refurbished MacBook they own. They’re only sold out for today.

If you check back at 1 AM PDT (4 AM EDT), you’ll see a much larger selection. (Didn’t see much? Try again the next day.)

This means by the time the west coast wakes up, the east coast early birds have snapped up the best deals. Suggestion: stay up late.

• a custom error page that matched the site's design
• the errors to appear in the error log (production.log)
• email notification of server errors

Note: these steps are for Rails 2.3.2. Other versions may require different instructions.

Custom error page

Normally, when server error occurs, Rails renders public/500.html. You can customize this. However, if you include your site's layour information here, you violate the DRY principle.

1. Create a directory for error templates mkdir app/views/errors
2. Create the error file: touch app/views/errors/500.html.erb
3. Remove the static file: rm public/500.html
4. In application_controller.rb, override render_optional_error_file:

   protected def render_optional_error_file(status_code) render :template => "errors/500", :status => 500, :layout => 'application' end

5. To test your error handler in the development environment, in application_controller.rb, add this line: alias_method :rescue_action_locally, :rescue_action_in_public be sure to comment this out when you're done, so you can see backtraces.

Logging errors

Because we overrode render_optional_error_file instead of using rescue_from (2), errors still go to the log (production.log).

Email notification

There's a terrific exception notification plugin that handles this for you.

This is a bit confusing, because there are three versions of the plugin floating around:

1. The master version on github, for Rails 3
2. A branch on github, for Rails 2.3
3. The old version, which also works with Rails 2

Important If you install via the standard method (script/plugin install), you'll get an old version of the plugin, and the current instructions (on github) won't work. (See below for legacy instructions.)

If you install from github, you'll get a version for Rails 3 by default, and that won't work, either.

Here's what to do:

1. Install the plugin from the 2-3-stable branch from github: script/plugin install git://github.com/rails/exception_notification.git -r 2-3-stable
2. In application_controller.rb, place this at the top: include ExceptionNotification::Notifiable
3. In environment.rb, add these lines at the very end, after the |config| block:

   ExceptionNotification::Notifier.exception_recipients = %w(my.name@mydomain.com) ExceptionNotification::Notifier.sender_address = %("Application Error" <app.error@mydomain.com>) ExceptionNotification::Notifier.email_prefix = "[Fancy App] "

4. To have sendmail send email (instead of using raw SMTP), add this line to environment.rb: ActionMailer::Base.delivery_method = :sendmail

Legacy exception_notification instructions

1. Install the plugin: script/plugin install exception_notification
2. In application_controller.rb, place this at the top: include ExceptionNotifiable
3. In environment.rb, add these lines at the very end, after the |config| block:

   ExceptionNotifier.exception_recipients = %w(my.name@mydomain.com) ExceptionNotifier.sender_address = %("Application Error" <app.error@mydomain.com>) ExceptionNotifier.email_prefix = "[Fancy App] "

Then push 1 (for customer service), 2 (for snowboards), 2 (for Ride) and 2 (for consumers).

Sometimes, it is because you changed the table prefix and the solution is a database change.

For other folks, it was due to old plugin incompatibility. To fix it, you need to replace admin_head with admin_menu.

Unfortunately, neither solution worked for me. However, the latter (and some digging) pointed me in the right direction.

In my case, I had to change the parameters to—and order of—the add_submenu_page() and add_menu_page() calls.

Here’s the old code:

function thgs_add_menus() {
 add_submenu_page(__FILE__, "Heather Gold Show", "Shows", 8, "thgs/shows.php");
 add_submenu_page(__FILE__, "Heather Gold Show", "Venues", 8, "thgs/venues.php");
 add_menu_page('Show Management', 'Shows', 8, __FILE__);
}

And here’s the fix, which works with WP 2.8.4:

function thgs_add_menus() {
  add_menu_page('Show Management', 'THGS', "administrator", "thgs/shows.php");
  add_submenu_page("thgs/shows.php", "Manage Shows", "Shows", "administrator", "thgs/shows.php");
  add_submenu_page("thgs/shows.php", "Manage Venues", "Venues", "administrator", "thgs/venues.php");
} 

Recently, my friend Rob posed a question to twitter:

Is Mac OS X 10.5.7 the single biggest patch Apple has ever released, or just one of the biggest?

I thought that was an easy question to anwser.

I was wrong.

I looked all over the web for this information, and no one seemed to have it in one place.

So, I present to you: the comprehensive Mac OS X software update chart, current as of May 28, 2009. When the downloads are still available, I’ve linked to them on Apple’s site.

Here are all of the Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) updates Apple has released. Leopard updates are all universal (four-way fat: ppc, ppc64, i386 and x86_64).

Answering Rob’s question

There are four different Mac OS X 10.5.7 updates: delta, combo, server and server combo. Each of the updates is the largest in its category.

The 10.5.7 delta update narrowly edges out the 10.5.3 update (by 22 MB). However, the 10.5.7 server update is actually 17 MB smaller than the 10.5.6 server update.

The combo update is 61 MB bigger than its nearest competitor; the server combo is 68 MB larger than its closest rival.

Next, the updates for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). The first four Tiger updates are PowerPC-only; after that, Apple released both PowerPC and Intel updates. Some of the later server updates were universal.

Back in Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther), the chart returns to simplicity. All of these updates are PowerPC-only.

Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) has one notable exception. Mac OS X 10.2.7 only shipped with some Power Mac G5s and was never available as as standalone software update.

At this point, things get difficult. The charts have some holes in them. I’m not sure if the updates never shipped, or have simply vanished. Searching Apple’s support site and Google failed to turn up any useful links. If you can help fill in the blanks, leave a comment.

Some good resources for Mac OS X update information:

• Apple: Mac OS X build information
• Apple: CPU-specific builds (Intel)
• Apple: CPU-specific builds (PPC)
• The X Lab’s updates page

• Range hood bulb: 10 Watt G4
• In-oven bulb: 50 Watt 130 Volt GY6.35

Head to your corner store and pick one up. Now, on with the story.

Recently, some of my oven’s light bulbs burnt out. I’d replaced the bulbs in the range hood before. They were easy to find—standard G4 halogen bulbs. They come in 10W and 20W varieties. I picked the 10W, since I wanted to be safe. It worked, and was bright enough.

But replacing the bulbs inside the oven was a different story, and a lesson in the idiocy of GE.

None of the bulbs in the store matched the in-oven bulb exactly. And at $11 a bulb, I didn’t want to be wrong. So, I headed home to get my facts straight.

First, I checked the manual for the oven. It showed me where the bulbs were, but listed neither a part number nor specifications.

Problem #1: The documentation is useless.

Next, I tried GE’s web site. I went to parts and accessories.

Problem #2: you can search for parts by part number or appliance model number, but not by keyword. There’s no way to search for “light bulb.”

What’s the model number of my oven? I don’t know, and it’s not on the manual, nor is it marked on the oven itself. I even check GE’s list of suggested locations. Nothing. Next, I try and browse for the model. I head to the home page, then to products, then gas cooking (a terrible URL), then slide-in ranges (I don’t think I have a free-standing range) then to stainless (an even worse URL). I look at all the pictures closely. None of them are my oven.

Problem #3 It’s too hard to find your model number.

Problem #4 GE’s site doesn’t show information for older/discontinued models.

Working on the assumption that all of these use the same bulb, I picked the first model on the list: PGS975SEMSS.

Aside: Who names this crap? That’s an even worse name than Sony’s Vaio VGN-CS290JEC (or perhaps The Apple Internet Server Solution for the World Wide Web).

Problem #5 Model numbers are incomprehensible.

I head back to the home page, enter PGS975SEMSS as the model number and click Go. Do I see details? No. I see a list of four model numbers, none of which are the one I entered. I pick first one on the list.

Now, I have three choices: browse by category, search by keyword or enter part number. Since none of the categories seem to work (BODY PARTS?), I enter “bulb” and click go.

Sorry! The part or keyword you searched for could not be located on the model you selected. Please try again.

Seriously?

Body parts it is. Scroll, scroll, scroll. Here we go:
LAMP HALOGEN 257 WB08T10021

The 257? That’s the item number in this exploded view.

Problem #6 Search is broken.

Problem #7 It took me eleven pages to find the part I want (Home, Parts & Accessories, [detour: home, products, gas cooking, free-standing], model number search, model number results page, part search, part results error, part search, body parts).

They still won’t tell me what kind of bulb this is. And they want $10.50 + 5.95 shipping = $16.45. That’s one expensive light bulb.

Problem #8 Bulbs are bloody expensive.

Fortunately, I have better luck with Google. Part number in hand, I see several sellers. None of them are too appealing. Part Advantage wants only $7 for the bulb, but $8 for ground shipping. Part Store has almost identical pricing (I’ll save 8¢). Appliance Parts Solutions has me down to $4.42 + $6.50.

I score with eBay. Only $4.20 a bulb and $5.40 shipping. I order four — two for now, and two spares, since I don’t want to go through this again.

The bulbs arrive, and they work. And, for the record, GE ovens use 50 Watt 130 Volt GY6.35 bulbs.

GE, this is why your conversion rate sucks.

• during television and radio advertisements
• in voicemail messages
• on conference calls

So what? Well, almost everyone gets it wrong.

And you sound like an idiot when you do.

I’ve seen directors of national political organizations and billion-dollar public companies make these mistakes.

In the interest of saving you and your organization future embarrassment, let’s run through a quick example. Suppose we want to give out the URL for Google Voice, the replacement for GrandCentral.

The URL for Google Voice is:

http://www.google.com/voice

You would read it aloud like so:

w-w-w dot google dot com slash voice

What not to do:

• Don’t read out “http://”. Nobody needs to hear “h-t-t-p colon slash slash.” It’s at the beginning of every URL. That’s eight syllables you waste.
• Don’t say “backslash.” A backslash looks like this: \. If you type a backslash instead of a slash, your web browser will give you an error.
• Don’t say “forward slash.” A forward slash is the default type of slash. It’s either slash or backslash. Don’t waste those three syllables.

Suppose you want to read about my house concerts. The URL for my house concerts site is:

http://concerts.shrub.ca/

You would read it aloud like so:

concerts dot shrub dot c-a

• Don’t read out “http://”. Nobody needs to hear “h-t-t-p colon slash slash.” It’s at the beginning of every URL. That’s eight syllables you waste.
• Don’t say “www” — it’s not in the URL.
• Don’t pronounce the trailing slash. (I’ve never heard anyone do this, but you never know.)

A note about top-level domains

The last part of the hostname is the top-level domain (TLD). For google.com, it’s “com.” For concerts.shrub.ca, it’s “ca.”

If you have a three-or more letter TLD (com, net, org, info, biz), pronounce it like a word. For “eff.org,” say “e-f-f dot org,” not “e-f-f dot o-r-g.”

If you have a two-letter (country code) TLD, spell it out. For Canada (.ca), say “c-a,” not “ka”; for Switzerland (.ch), say “c-h.”

I knew I could do this with an SSH tunnel. I just wasn’t sure how. There are lots of pages explaining how to set up SSH tunnels and proxies, but none were very clear or complete, and they didn’t explain what you had to do on the web browser end.

Step 1: Set up the SSH tunnel

ssh -D 8080 -f -C -q -N user@hostname.ca

Step 2: Set up System Preferences

This is for Safari and other WebKit-based browsers. Note: this will also affect Mail and other CFNetwork-based applications.

1. Select Apple > System Preferences
2. Click Network
3. Select the network interface you wish to use (i.e. AirPort)
4. Click Advanced
5. Click Proxies
6. Select Configure Proxies > Manually (only necessary on Leopard and earlier)
7. Check the box beside SOCKS Proxy
8. fill in “localhost” and “8080″
9. Click OK
10. Click Apply

Step 3: Set up Firefox

1. Select Firefox > Preferences
2. Click Advanced
3. Click Network
4. Click Settings
5. Click “Manual proxy configuration”
6. Besides SOCKS Host, fill in “localhost” and “8080″
   Do not fill in any other fields, including “HTTP Proxy”
7. Click SOCKS v5
8. Click OK