MustModify Blog: Recent Posts

Great Interfaces: The Scale of the Universe

February 11, 2012
http://htwins.net/scale2/ I love how much information is communicated in such a simple interface. I also like the fact that data appears when it is needed, but doesn't clutter up the screen when it is not needed.


cucumber says, "no such file to load -- spec/expectations"

September 13, 2011
Setting up a Rails3 application quickly, I ran in to this error... no such file to load -- spec/expectations easy fix... I had gem 'rspec' but needed to add gem 'rspec-rails'


Funniest irrelevant argument ever

May 22, 2011
From "Use Mercurial, you Git!":http://translated.by/you/use-mercurial-you-git/original/?show-translation-form=1 "If I'd wanted building blocks for rolling my own, I'd have gone to Home Depot and bought a 1 and a 0."


MySQL permissions for a Rails app

May 21, 2011
Here's how I typically setup my rails environments. NOTE: I don't include stored procedure or view permissions because Rails doesn't ever use those. Wouldn't it be great if Rails used views or stored procedures? Actually, I kinda like it the way it is. Stored Procedures are nice but the tradeoff, IE having business logic in the app and in the...


Capistrano says, "sh: bundle: not found"

May 12, 2011
Typically, you define your path in /etc/environment. Here's a simple example: --- PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/ruby/bin" --- That last bit tells the system where Ruby lives. If Ruby isn't in the path, you won't be able to run it or any gem scripts, like bundle. Unfortunately,...


[FIX] With Rails 2.3.x, undefined local variable or method `dep' for Gem:Module

April 20, 2011
I received this message when I ran cucumber tests but not when I used script/console. Kinda strange. Perhaps this is because I didn't configure cucumber for my dev environment?? Anyway, the fix: --- gem uninstall rubygems-update gem update --system 1.4.3 --- In the words of Yoda, "Unfortunate this is, and unexpected." References ======= "Can...


get Ruby 1.9 Date.parse to assume American date format

March 29, 2011
Ruby 1.9 assumes that everyone has been broken of the bad habit of illogical date formats. in the console: --- >> Date.parse('2/15/2011') ArgumentError: invalid date >> Date.parse('2/15/11') ArgumentError: invalid date >> '2/15/2011'.to_date ArgumentError: invalid date --- While I'm driving everyone crazy by...


My Rails App Just Answered the Phone?

March 17, 2011
"Twilio":http://www.twilio.com/ apparently offers a "telephone api":http://www.twilio.com/how-twilio-works and also an SMS API. I get how you could easily set up an SMS API. Pretty cool stuff. But what amazed me what the idea that someone could call a telephone number, which would result in a post to my website... and I would respond with...