Author Archives: krames

Google Syntax Highlighter for WordPress

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I have started thinking about displaying little code snippets on my website. And I quickly found out that the out of the box appearance of code samples in WordPress leaves a lot to be desired. So I started hitting the web for plugins and I think I found a winner.

It’s called Google Syntax Highlighter for WordPress and it builds upon this project at Google.

Here is the result: 

class CreateEvents < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    create_table :events do |t|
      t.string :name
      t.datetime :start_time
      t.datetime :end_time
      t.string :description

      t.timestamps
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :events
  end
end

I think it looks really good! I was unable to get the copy to clipboard functionality to work with Safari on my Mac. I am planning on investigating that further. I also wish the plugin was able to automatically detect the language of the code snippet rather than specifying it every time via an attribute, as I can see myself constantly hunting down the keywords for each language.

On a brighter note, I did run across this article on adding custom language highlighting. Very cool!

Update: I have switched over to Easy Google Syntax Highlighter as it supports more languages.

Rails and MySQL on Mac OS X PPC

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There seem to be a lot of articles on how to get the MySQL gem for rails to work, but they all seem to be geared towards the newer Intel Macs.

Here is how I did it on my PPC Mac:

  • Download and install the Mac OS X 10.5 (PowerPC, 32-bit) version of MySQL from here. You can go for the TAR, but the package is much easier!
  • Execute the following command from terminal:
    ARCHFLAGS="-arch ppc" sudo gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config

The just of it, is that the version of Ruby on Mac OS X 10.5 is 32-bit and it doesn’t seem to play well with the 64-bit version of the MySQL gem and 64-bit MySQL. So, just install the 32-bit version of MySQL and install/build the 32-bit version of the MySQL gem.

Now you should be successfully able to use MySQL with Rails!

Microsoft’s new Anti-Apple Ad

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I just stumbled across a new Anti-Apple Microsoft Ad on the AppleInsider.

In the commercial, Lauren steps into an Apple store looking for a 17″ Laptop for a thousand bucks. She walks out saying “I guess I am not cool enough to be a Mac Person.”

Is that really flattering to Microsoft? I don’t think so!!!

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&#038;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:0bb6a07c-c829-4562-8375-49e6693810c7&#038;showPlaylist=true&#038;from=shared" target="_new" title="Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion">Video: Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion</a>

Updated look and feel

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After installing Word Press, I finally realized why so many people have the same blue gradient box on their blogs…it’s the default theme!!!

So I decided to poke around the word press theme directory today and I think I found a good one. It’s called iNove. If you’re looking for a cool modern look such as myself you should check it out!

I also changed the name of my blog to /Users/krames…I think it gives it that cool OS X geek feel to it!

Now I just want to spend some time looking for some plugins. Hopefully it will not take away from my busy blog posting schedule! I am trying!

The Quest for HD

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After resisting the siren call of HD for several years, last December I finally decided to take the plunge. At first I couldn’t believe how incredibly sharp the picture was, but over time, I went from being amazed to constantly critiquing every single pixel.

I was certain that the source of all my problems was Time Warner Cable of San Antonio. You see, they have always been a source of never ending problems for me. Every couple of months, I seem to experience an outage, billing problem, potential channel loss, or in some cases damage to my personal property. With all my bad history, I was certain that they weren’t capable of delivering a quality picture.

So with great delight I decided to switch to another provider. I spent a long time talking to people about providers and combing forums on the internet. After about a month of research I finally decided on Dish Network. They were reported to have an excellent picture, a good price, and people seemed to be particularly excited about their ViP 722 set top box.

I kept them for about two weeks and then after careful deliberation I decided to switch back to Time Warner. So why did I leave them?

I really felt that Time Warner of San Antonio had better picture quality. The local HD channels didn’t seem to be as sharp as TW. They appeared to have a very smooth appearance. I also noticed the channel logo/water marks looked very jagged on Dish. The picture also seemed to have grain to it. (No doubt from the Mpeg4 compression) The worst visual artifact was on ESPN. All of their text seemed to have been photocopied several times over. I also thought the picture looked relatively flat. I did mess around with the settings on my tv and was able to get it to improve quite a bit, but it still seemed to lack the vibrance of Time Warner.

The equipment was the surprising disappointment. CNET had had given the ViP722 the editors choice beating out TiVO! (I do not think that box is in the same league as TiVO). In general the box does not seem as intuitive as other DVRs I have used. I felt it was awkward trying to record one show as well as deleting season passes. I would have also expected a better GUI. (I do have to fault both Time Warner and Dish on their GUIs. They seem to think the world has not made any progress on GUI’s since the late 80s!) Lastly, the box was hooked into two of my tvs and it only had two tuners. (The reported third is an OTA one) So I could either record a show and watch an additional channel simultaneously on both my tvs OR watch two different shows on both my tvs without recording a second. That was HUGE step backward from my previous cable setup and I thought Dish miss represented their service.

So, I am back with Time Warner. Is that where it is going to stop? Well for the time being yes. I am thinking about getting a TiVo which will let you use both cable and OTA channels at the same time. (That would also be a nice backup in case the cable goes out!) I am also keeping my eye on DirectTV. They are rumored to have a Tivo unit at the end of the year which could be interesting, but I am not quite sure how much of a throw back its going to be the two tuner boxes of Dish. And of course there is always U-Verse (Of which I haven’t heard too many positive experiences about)

So what has been your experiences with HD providers in SA?

Welcome to kylerames.com!

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After years of thinking about it, I finally have my own domain and a blog to boot! Look forward to seeing my thoughts on the tech industry along with my adventures in software development. (I hope my blog turns out to be as exciting as it sounds!)

On aside note, if you are looking for an internet hosting provider make sure slicehost.com is on your short list. Unlike a lot of bargin basement providers where you share a machine with several accounts, you get your OWN virtual machine.