Setting up Ubuntu for Ruby on Rails development

NOTE: This is a work-in-progress. I’m publishing it early so that Sam can use it. If it doesn’t work for you exactly as expected, well, that’s to be expected.
Every time I setup a new Ubuntu machine, I have to search around to come up with a procedure for getting everything I need to develop Ruby [...]

Rain8net Ruby Library v1.0.0

I previously wrote about a product called Rain8net. I’m happy to announce the initial release of my Rain8net ruby library. The library is now available from rubyforge.org.
Or, just install it like this:
gem install rain8net
Now you won’t have to worry about sending the specific codes I detailed in my last post. Controlling your [...]

Build a Development Infrastructure…or buy a Mac

Disclaimer: Let me start out by saying I am not anti-Mac. That being said, I am very pro-Linux. I am not a Dell lover either. I just picked them for comparison.
As a web developer, I have found it extremely beneficial to have access to my own servers for development purposes. I have my own infrastructure [...]

Hostmonster on Rails

A client of mine recently moved their web hosting to Hostmonster, and I was tasked with migrating a Ruby on Rails application to the new server. I ran into a few snags.
First of all, I followed their tutorial.
The default rails welcome page worked fine, but I kept getting “Application Error” on everything else. The logs [...]

Converting DivX files to mpegs for an NTSC DVD

Problem:
You have a bunch of DivX avi files and want to put them on a DVD for a friend. The friend wants to play the final product on a DVD player (not on a PC).
Solution:
Believe it or not, my first inclination was to fire up my old Windows XP computer because it has [...]

MythTV on Ubuntu plus IRman

I’ve been running mythtv for a couple of years. It is much more flexible and feature-packed than any commercially available DVR. Last week Sam told me that the free service for the TV listings has closed up. There is a new fee-based service from Schedules Direct. Unfortunately, I was still running mine on Fedora Core [...]

Using RubyODBC in Rails on Linux to connect to MS SQL Server

(I really need to work on shortening my titles.)
I spent the day trying to figure out one little problem. I setup a brand new server for the Intranet at work. I set it up with Fedora 7 and started configuring it for my rails apps. Since our corporation has decided to use Microsoft [...]

Scripting Access to America First Credit Union

Here’s a little script I thought might be useful for others out there. I run it each morning using a cron job. It logs in to my account at America First Credit Union and sends me a summary of recent account activity. (You’ll need to change some of the variables if you decide to use [...]

Automatically downloading ACID 8-Packs

Here’s a little perl script I use to automatically snag those handy (& free) ACID loops each week. This will determine the name of the current 8Pack, download it, extract it, and delete the zip file–leaving you with a nice folder including the ACID project and the loops. Then, just run it each week [...]

Fedora 7 – First Impression

Fedora 7 was officially released last week. I had a chance to install it on my main desktop machine at home over the weekend. I haven’t had a chance to dig in a lot, but so far it seems a lot like the last version.
The main difference I’ve seen so far is the presence of [...]