Background

I write code on 2 different machines: my (aging) MacBook Pro and a 24″ iMac.  Looking back, I should have replaced the MacBook and added a 24″ monitor instead of buying the iMac, but that’s hindsight…

Anyway, I was actually keeping certain Ruby on Rails projects in git in folders in Dropbox.  Yes, I know this is slightly redundant when using a version control system, and I caught some flak for this from a colleague.  But the convenience was amazing. I often get up from my iMac mid-coding session and end up plopping down someplace else with the laptop and resuming.  It is so nice not to have to commit, push, and pull every time this happens.  In fact, sometimes I don’t even completely plan it; I’ll leave the house for an errand, and end up staying out and coding from a coffee shop.  Since I rarely leave home without my laptop (which I’m beginning to think is a character flaw) this works well for me.

Syncing a git repo through Dropbox

Up until now, I’ve had very few problems syncing a git repository through Dropbox.  The only real issue I ever encountered was that the file permissions would change on executable files. Newly created files with 755 permissions would sometimes turn to 644 when synced to the other machine.  Doing a fresh git checkout on just these files would restore the permissions and they would stay correct.  (I never bothered trying to solve this problem permanently).

Once, I actually ended up with a conflict in the git index, but it was easily resolved since Dropbox doesn’t blow away any files in this case (it just appends the name with “(conflicted copy)”.

Enter Autospec

The other day, I begin using autospec combined with spork (highly recommended by the way) in my testing.  Something about this process generates lots of log files (temporary or otherwise, I haven’t checked).  While this was going on, the Dropbox cache files on the other computer where silently growing HUGE.

By the time I realized it, the cache files for a 4 day period had grown in size from something normal to 26GB!!!

I surrender

I probably should take the time to figure out exactly what’s going on, maybe even give the Dropbox guys some pointers on how to replicate this situation.  I still might – I still love Dropbox and it has its place in my computing.

But for now, I’m going to take my git repos out my Dropbox.  I was feeling guilty about it anway – it felt like I was doing something dirty – so this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

As for reclaiming the space?  Its safe to delete your Dropbox cache files.  Just shut down Dropbox, delete the cache files (individual folders or the while ~/.dropbox/cache folder) and then restart Dropbox.

The location == great.  I wish I had more time to explore Chicago while I was there, but its a fun city and being on the river at the Westin was awesome.

I particularly enjoyed the tutorial session “Behavior Driven Rails with RSpec and Cucumber“.  We’ve settled on following a BDD style using RSpec and Cucumber at work, so I was keenly interested in this one.  It started a bit slow for me – the experience level of the attendees varied widely, so we were forced to start “at the beginning”.  Despite this, the real treat was being able to just watch David Chelimsky and Corey Haines pair program.  I’m fairly new to pair programming, although what I’ve done so far has shown its value to me.  Observing two guys like David and Corey pair proves that value.  You can witness them discover things, push each other, help each other, and focus more keenly than they otherwise would alone.  It really is magic.

Thanks to everyone who was a part of Windy City Rails.  I fully intend to return next year, hopefully with a little more time on my hands to really enjoy the city.

My solution is to use an around filter on my controller and a custom class. This way, I can set how form validation errors are displayed on entire controllers or certain actions.

I created a new file called field_error_proc_changer.rb in my lib directory as follows:

class FieldErrorProcChanger
  def initialize(proc)
    @new_proc = proc
  end

  # This will run before the action. Returning false
  # aborts the action.
  def before(controller)
    @old_proc = ActionView::Base.field_error_proc
    ActionView::Base.field_error_proc = @new_proc
    true
  end

  # This will run after the action if and only if
  # before returned true.
  def after(controller)
    ActionView::Base.field_error_proc = @old_proc
  end
end

Now, you can replace the existing field_error_proc using a normal around_filter

class RandomController < ApplicationController

  around_filter FieldErrorProcChanger.new(
    Proc.new {|html_tag, instance| "#{html_tag}"}
  )

  def index
    foo = bar
  end
end

Or on only certain actions like

  around_filter FieldErrorProcChanger.new(
    Proc.new {|html_tag, instance| "#{html_tag}"}
  ),  nly => [:index]

The value for field_error_proc I’m showing actually doesn’t add anything to the field with validation errors (I’m using a custom form builder that adds special classes to fields with errors, so I don’t need any html added). But, you could add a fancier proc too:

around_filter FieldErrorProcChanger.new(
  Proc.new  do |html_tag, instance|
    html = “”
    html << %{<div class="ridiculous_construct">}
    html << %{<span>There&#8217;s an error over here!</span>}
    html << %{#{html_tag}</div>}
  end
)

Why would you want to do this? In my case, I’m adding an extension to the Radiant CMS. My extension has an administrative interface, and my forms aren’t exactly like the default Radiant forms. Radiant sets its own field_error_proc, which I don’t want in my controllers, but I don’t want to change the way the native Radiant admin works or looks.

What’s happening is that comatose is checking the database for a page with a fullpath of ” (empty string). But my database has the “Home Page” fullpath stored as NULL, so it doesn’t find it. I don’t know if this is a config problem with my database or an error in the migration script at this point.

The easy fix is to edit the “Home Page” in comatoseadmin and immediately save it. The fullpath value is replaced with an empty string and the 404 error is solved.

Net::SMTPAuthenticationError (535 Incorrect authentication data)

The Rails app needs to be restarted to pick up the configuration settings. This was on a Locomotive environment with Rails 1.2.3.

After sleeping on it and then consulting my Wise Counselor (wife), I resolved (well.. she told me) to just slap the whole darn lot up on ebay. Forget the sorting and labeling, just get it out there. That even ended up taking too long, but at least I was able to move on to other things. But I couldn’t help thinking that I’d been bitten by the bug that causes everyone everywhere to keep things they don’t need for years and years and years – “I can’t throw this away, what if its worth something one day!” Sure, everything has value to someone, and ebay makes that far to easy to discern. But I could have profited much more this weekend by either getting the house on the market, or doing some work for some clients, or even taking a nap. I ain’t going to get rich based off of the stuff in the attic, and even if I was, at this point I’d rather not know about it. It feels much better to give it away or throw it in the trash – especially when that trash is the Wake County Convenience Center down the street where you can throw just about anything in this big dumpster then they press the button and reduce it all to the size of a peanut – SWEET!

So GI Joe, thanks for the good times, but you really ruined my weekend. For your sake, I hope the person who buys you on ebay doesn’t throw you in dumpster one day.

My Crash Monkey Porter is, well, a porter. It pours almost jet black with 2 fingers of creamy tan head that sticks around like a carpet on top of the beer. It smells of coffee with an earthy sweetness. It tastes similar to how it smells, with a definite roasted flavor. Unfortunately, it also has a bit of a metallic flavor, sort of bitter. I’m guessing this has something to do with the water I used – I used tap water this time rather than bottled water. I’ll probably use bottled next time or make sure I filter the water better.

If I were doing a beer advocate style review, here’s what it would look like:

(1-5 scale: 1=awful, 3=average, 5=exceptional)
Appearance (20%): 4.0
Smell (20%): 3.5
Taste (40%): 3.0
Mouthfeel (10%): 4.0
Drinkability(10%): 3.5

For a total of a 3.45.

Crash Monkey Porter (named after my dog, Crash) is supposed to be a copy of Sierra Nevada Porter. I just bought a Sierra Nevada single the other day, so I’m going to do a blind taste test this weekend!

I just got back from historic Reynolds Coliseum where I watched NC State beat Marist in the 2nd round of the NIT. That was a wild game, but returning to Reynolds brought back a lot of memories for me. I was at State during the Pack’s last 3 seasons in Reynolds (before they moved in to the RBC). We were never very good during those, but being back there tonight brought back all sorts of great college memories.

But back to the game… we played well, their 3-point threat Whittington was off (more on that later), the atmosphere was electric, and the refs were ridiculous. I mean, I’m no sports analyst, but its obvious these guys lost control of the game and made some horrible calls. Horner and Costner both got a little heated, but did not appear to do anything to deserve the technicals they got. Our touches drew whistles, their maulings went unpunished. The ball bounced off of a Marist player and out of bounds, right in front of the ref, but he gave it back to them (that’s when Sid almost kicked the ball, kickball-style). The most ridiculous call was when Nieman went to pick up the ball and got tackled from behind… which was a foul on Nieman according to these refs. But hey, we won, so no more whining from me. But man, the last 2 minutes of that game must have taken 45 minutes to play. Marist didn’t go down without a fight.

So here’s where I take credit for Whittington’s cold hand. I didn’t do any research before the game. I had no idea Marist had this guy who shoots 40% from three’s. I think I heard he leads the nation, for active players, for made 3’s. During their warm ups a glanced over and saw this guy hitting treys. I watched him hit what must have been 10 in a row. So I poke my buddy Les in the ribs and say “Watch this guy shoot”… and he proceeds to miss his next several shots and then go cold all game. Yep, must have been me!

It was great to be able to show my appreciation to the Pack for this special season by being there tonight. And their tip of the hat back to the fans at the end was great. Next up is West Virginia on Tuesday. Go Pack!

My new business is called Tiji Web Development. More on that name, and the website, will be forthcoming!

But man, I can’t help think about ‘83…