How To: Build a Wiki with Ruby on Rails – Part 1

Here’s how to build a very simple Ruby on Rails-based wiki engine 1. 1. Create the Rails App rails wiki and cd wiki to get inside the app. Remember: create your database (i.e. wiki_development) and update config/database.ymlappropriately 2. Generate the Scaffolding There are 3 nouns in this wiki system: People, Pages, Revisions. Let’s create the …

McCain & Obama Tax Plans: Small Change

Viveka Weiley redrew Washington Post’s chart of Obama’s and McCain’s respective tax plans. First off, a caveat: Basing a vote on potential personal financial changes is as one-sided as basing a vote on gender, skin pigment, or hair color. It’s one factor and one that I hope to argue it is a wash to vast …

Asks: Should We Buy a HD TiVo?

Our Series2 TiVo is on its last legs. With each passing day, its over-the-air recordings (we’re a no cable household) are more and more unwatchable, while digital over-the-air recordings are getting more stable. But seriously, TV without TiVo is like email without a spam filter. Back in January, I replaced our DVD player w/ a …

Markets Self-Correct

from “Divine Intervention”: Drilling Boom Revives Hope for Natural Gas, Prices Fall By 42% in Two Months – Mark J. Perry I love when markets self-correct. When prices or activity reaches a point where they start to turn back on themselves.

Workaround for IE Overly Accepting in Rails’ respond_to format

Looks like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer will accept any format a web server is willing to give it. This doesn’t play nicely with Rails’ 2.0+ respond_to feature. A slick little bit of code that asks the browser what it wants and replies accordingly. Here’s a conversation between Rails & Firefox Firefox: “Hey Rails, I want this …

What if We Had Just 10% More Energy Producers?

If memory serves, the internet was originally developed as a national defense mechanism. A way to keep communications – in a distributed manner – flowing after a nuclear attack. Each node a client and a server, a receiver and producer. Today, not only are the vast majority of Americans online (receivers), but a good chunk …

My 11 Favorite Eponymous Laws

Amara’s law — “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run”. Brooks’ law: “Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.” Conway’s Law : “Any piece of software reflects the organizational structure that produced it.” Edwards’ law: “You cannot apply …