These days I'm accustomed to having the 7z command available on Unix-like systems (thanks to the p7zip project).
On top of that, 7zip is always one of the first utils I install on any Windows machine I work with.
So as an exercise in cross-platform style (or just for the …
Today I had the chance to briefly explore Bugzilla's API.
I used curl to experiment with the XML-RPC API a bit - in the end I just scratched the surface of what's possible, but it was interesting nonetheless.
Here are a few examples of things you can do:
A …
Today I wanted to check the notBefore and notAfter validity dates of an SSL cert installed on a remote server.
I immediately wondered if there was an easy way to use the OpenSSL command line tool to accomplish this.
And there is - you just have to pass the output of …
I was interested in seeing how quickly one can add a lightbox gallery to a Rails app nowadays.
As it happens, there's really not much to it, especially when using the fancybox-rails gem.
This post describes how to bring up an existing image viewer app (the "gallery-after" app from the …
Need a place to experiment with PostgreSQL, but not in the mood to set up the server locally?
Then try out the free dev plan on Heroko Postgres. No configuration or credit card required.
Creating a DB and manipulating it with the psql CLI can be done in just a …
GhostDriver is a project that lets you write Selenium WebDriver automation tests that run using the PhantomJS headless WebKit, instead of a traditional web browser.
Put another way, PhantomJS can replace Firefox and friends in your WebDriver scripts - and it doesn't require a display, so testing complex web apps from …
My last post was about executing small Java programs from within vim, without leaving the editor to manually open a shell.
The goal was to rapidly execute example code for your own edification, or when showing code to other people - basically any time you need a Short, Self Contained, Correct …
For instructional purposes (either when experimenting on your own, or when demonstrating code to others) it's always useful to be able to run snippets of code in a REPL, or a similar environment allowing fast turnaround in the edit/compile/run cycle.
When using Java, other IDEs offer ways to …
Say you're on the console on your Raspberry Pi, and you want to take a screenshot. But without X running, what does one do?
Simple: Use fbgrab. To install it, just:
sudo apt-get install fbgrab
Pass fbgrab the name of the virtual terminal/tty you want to snapshot, and it'll …
Lately I've been looking for reasons to use OmniGraffle for diagramming.
And with the steps to set up static web hosting in S3 (as mentioned in my last post) still fresh in mind, it seems like a good time to document what I did. And the steps are simple enough …