February 9, 2010
We didn’t panic, but we did lose power for two days (and went through pretty severe gadget and internet withdrawal, probably more-so than heat withdrawal). Between the news, facebook, twitter, and everything else, the big storm (32.4 inches of snow here in around 36 hours) has been well covered, so instead of going on about it, I’m just going to post some photos from the big event (and a couple from the December snowstorm).
Posted in dogs, photography, weather 
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January 31, 2010
Originally this blog started out as a fairly personal journal, but has recently adopted a more technology-oriented theme. I plan to focus even more on technology blogging in the future, but I also want to occasionally blog about personal happenings, so I’ve decided to split my blog in two.
This site, mfischer.com, will return to its roots as the personal blog about Mike Fischer. To publish my technology articles I’ve created a new blog under a new domain: thelastpixel.net. I’ve just gotten started with it, but plan to post regularly on software development and other technology issues. If you’re interested, check it out and sign up for the RSS subscription! If not, just keep watching here for more non-technical news from my life…
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October 10, 2009
I’ve become such a bad blogger: months between updates, and forgetting to mention things like my semi-annual PET scans. After all, cancer is what prompted me to start this blog in the first place, almost exactly three years ago!
Well, in August I had my scan, and as usual, everything turned out fine. Next scan in January. Happy to say that the last two and a half years have probably been my healthiest of the last 20!
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July 13, 2009
Now that I’ve been using Rails for a while, I’ve accumulated a few gems and plugins that I end up using over and over, so I thought I’d share a little about each.
haml and sass
I was sold on Sass from the first few minutes I used it. Sass lets you write CSS using a simplified abstraction format, and compiles your sass code into CSS. Best of all, it can be used without Rails (or Ruby), so I’ve been using it with static web pages as well. Here’s an excellent example from the sass web site:
Haml does the same for HTML. It took me a little longer to get used to, probably because it’s actually a replacement for HTML and Embedded Ruby (ERB). Haml really cuts down on the amount of typing needed to generate HTML, auto-closes tags (based on indentation), and makes it far easier to see the structure of your document. This snapshot from the haml page is a great demonstration:
friendly_id
This extends Rails’ RESTful resources by making URLs look “friendlier”, using a user-specified attribute of a model instead of the auto-generated numeric ID. In other words, by simply adding a statement like has_friendly_id :name to a users model, friendly_id converts URLs from http://my.site.com/users/17 into the much nicer http://my.site.com/users/mike.
Authlogic
This is the leading user authentication framework for Rails. It you need to allow users to register, sign in, change passwords, use OpenID, user LDAP, etc., this is the plug-in for you. It takes some time to learn how to integrate it, since each web site’s implementation is going to be a little different.
mislav-will_paginate
This makes it dead simple to take a model with many records, and display it in pages, where you can control how many are displayed per page, and the style of the page links:
thoughtbot-paperclip
I’ve researched and tried many file upload/attachment gems but Paperclip is the one I settled on. It seems to be the most actively maintained, and one of the most flexible. File uploading is still not as easy as it should be, especially if you want to provide feedback during upload (usually via a Flash plugin) or allow multiple attachments to a model (usually with an associated polymorphic upload model). Paperclip doesn’t do these things out of the box, but it’s possible to wrangle it into submission…
unobtrusive_date_picker
These days there’s no reason to make your users select a month, day, and year from three separate drop-down boxes, or type a date in some pre-determined format. This plug-in automagically adds a pop-up calendar to your date selection input fields.
jRails
When I started learning Javascript a few years ago, it was a huge pain in the neck. I quickly came across Prototype, which made my life much easier. Before I got too far along with that however, I found jQuery and fell instantly in love. This was clearly the way Javascript programming was meant to be. I used it for everything. Then last year when I started learning Rails, I was a little disappointed to find that the javascript library built-in to Rails was Prototype. Fortunately, others apparently had the same complaint, and created JRails, which integrates jQuery with Rails.
Others
There are a few other gems and plugins I use, but not as frequently. They include: Maruku, acts_as_audited, mechanize, and hpricot.
Am I missing out on any must-have gems or plug-ins? Let me know in the comments!
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May 25, 2009
Kat and I have traded in our bikes for better models, only a couple weeks after buying them. We both got really good deals from Performance Bike in Reston on the upgrades. The new bikes are 21- and 24- speed instead of 7-speed, have front shock absorbers, and higher quality shifters, gears, brakes, and other parts. The additional gears are essential for dealing with the long and steep hills on the Fairfax Parkway trail.
I also have a new iPhone, and downloaded a great free application that uses the GPS to record your bike rides and map them on Google Maps. Below shows the route that was recorded yesterday when Kat and I rode over 21 miles (round trip) to Leesburg and back on the W&OD trail. We kept our pace brisk, and it was a really good workout — almost 1,800 calories for me according to the bike computer. I’ve now ridden around 100 miles total, and Kat’s gone further since she’s done some biking trips while I’ve been at work. She’s been logging our efforts in an online document here.
W&OD from Rt. 28 to Leesburg and back
I also rode to work last Monday, which was a lot of fun, but logistically complicated (backpack full of clothes, shower at work, etc.). It took me about 40 minutes to get to work, vs. the usual 15-20 when driving. But adding in all the prep time and shower time at work makes it more like 60, so 3-4 times as long. I’ll probably do it occasionally, but I don’t think it’ll become my primary way of getting to work.
I’m really enjoying biking, and am glad that we decided to get bikes this year. There are a lot of bike trails in Virginia, so we’ll probably find a way to start exploring more of them.
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