Author:
Aaron Hillegass
At Big Nerd Ranch, we follow a pretty minimal style for our slides. It is important to us, however, that our slide shows go in and out of subversion easily. Also, it is important that we can easily generate a book from a collection of slide shows.…
Author:
derek
Andre and I will be at SF Beta tonight demoing PlaceShout, our short-form local reviews service.
We’re among 10 companies showing off their latest innovations (view the full list).
More information on tonight’s event is here.
Hope to see you there!…
Author:
derek
We’re using Scout, our monitoring and reporting application, to graph the performance of our Rails applications and servers.
I’ve uploaded a video that looks at how one of our applications, PlaceShout, impacts the server load and Mongrel memory usage.…
Author:
derek
Better = more work. Tools that “make better easier” are rare.
I heard a radio advertisment for Safeway’s FoodFlex Program this morning. When you purchase groceries at Safeway and use your Safeway Card, Foodflex analyzes your purchases and suggests healthier alternatives.…
Author:
derek
#plan_table {
border-collapse:collapse;
}
#plan_table td, #plan_table th {
font-size:11px;
font-family:verdana;
}
#plan_table th {
text-align:left;
border-bottom:1px solid #000;
padding-right:4px;
line-height:130%;
vertical-align:bottom;
}
#plan_table td {
padding: 4px;
vertical-align:top;
line-height:130%;
}
.shaded td {
background-color:#DADDDD;
}
.plan_info {
font-size:10px;
color: #333;
line-height:120%;
}
We’re working on our subscription plans for Scout.…
Author:
andre
For a recent Rails project, I had to use PostgreSQL instead of the standard MySQL for the database. Setting up Postgres on Mac OS 10.5 has some quirks, which I will share with you here.
There are three primary ways to get PostGRES onto Leopard: a pre-built binary, MacPorts, and source….
Author:
derek
Tracking the results of your blatant self-promotion campaign can be a time-consuming effort. You might be using Google Analytics for web traffic and FeedBurner for blog subscribers. You’re probably checking link referrals. You’re querying the database for usage statistics (user signups, logins, etc.), etc.…
Author:
Charles Brian Quinn
Recently I’ve been reading Obie Fernandez’s book, The Rails Way.
I made an appearance in one of the chapters, but the real credit goes to Obie for pulling together an exhaustive 850-page book.
It’s not for beginners, but if you’ve taken one of my Rails training classes, it’s a great reference book and next step.…
Author:
derek
When something bad happens you want to find out about it as quickly as possible.
You’re probably notified of uncaught exceptions. What about slow web requests, which can be just as annoying to a user?
Find about about slow web requests (and what might be causing them) in near real-time using Scout and the Ruby on Rails Request Monitoring Plugin.…
Author:
andre
I have a geocoding recipe coming out in Pragmatic’s Advanced Rails Recipes . The recipe is titled “Finding Things by Location,” and it offers how-tos and best practices on using my GeoKit plugin to, well, Find Things by Location. The most recent PDF of the beta book includes my recipe along with over 30 other recipes by community leaders like Chris Wanstrath, Dan Benjamin, and Geoffrey Grosenbach, to name just a few.…