I Like Blogger; Moderating Comment Form Spam

I've been using Blogger since 2005 and like it quite a lot.  To me it generally seems much easier than managing the security of a self-hosted Wordpress blog and easier than creating my own blog software in Ruby on Rails.

However, I have recently noticed an increase in comment link spam from various off-shore locations, advertising second rate (or worse?) web businesses.  It turns out that Blogger provides some sufficient looking moderation functions.

To set this up for yourself on your own Blogger site, go to "Posts and comments" under the Settings area.  Scroll down to the Comment Moderation section and choose wither Always or Sometimes.  I've personally chosen to only moderate comments posted to older posts.

I hope this tip helps.

Default HTML Values with a Rails View Helper

Suppose you have the same image tag included frequently in a Rails application.  One way to clean up the code a bit and to set defaults is to create a super simple view helper method that can receive a hash parameter and merge it with the defaults.

For example:

In app/helpers/pages_helper.rb:

def gui_tiny_icon(name, opts = {}) 

     image_tag "gui/theme/icons/#{name}", 

                                     {:class => "vm", width: 15, height: 15}.merge(opts) 

end

Then in the usual place of the HTML.ERB template, one can now do this:

<%= gui_tiny_icon "twitter.png", alt: "Frank's Twitter" %> 

<%= gui_tiny_icon "linkedin.png", alt: "Frank's LinkedIn" %>... 

<%= gui_tiny_icon "twitter.png", alt: "Bob's Twitter" %>

Much nicer than repeating the long image_tag .... for each icon image needed.

SQL Converter 3.4 Beta for Windows

SQL Converter 3.4 Beta for Windows is now available through the SQL Converter, version 3.4.0, beta read me.  The Mac OS X edition has been available since last week.

The build should work with:

• Microsoft Windows 8 Pro
• Microsoft Windows 7
• Microsoft Windows XP

It supports converting data from Microsoft Excel documents (XLS and XLSX) and Comma Separated Values (CSV) and Tab Separated Values (TSV) files.  It is self-contained and thus does not require Excel to be installed in order to run.

Please note that if you are running Microsoft Windows 8, SQL Converter 3 runs as a desktop application. It is not compatible with the Microsoft Windows 8 RT, which runs on the Surface tablet.

Before publishing it to the site, I personally verified that it ran on Windows 8 Pro and Windows XP.

The beta period is continuing as we finish working on the user interface for SQL Converter 3.4.  The software is free to use throughout this period, which is expected to last through January 2013.

The classic SQL Converter 2 is on sale for $99, marked down from $127, until the launch of the third edition.  Any customer who purchases SQL Converter 2 will automatically receive a full upgrade to SQL Converter 3 free of additional charge once it is released.

SQL Converter 3 Public Beta

SQL Converter 3 has been in public beta since Saturday.  I just pushed up a test build of a fully self-contained Mac OS X bundle today at http://dls.sqlconverter.com/desktop/3.4.x/readme.html.

The beta period is expected to last through January, 2013.  The purpose of the test is to refine the user experience and prepare distribution support for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows 7, and Microsoft Windows 8.

The core functionality has been battle tested over an extended period of internal use on a variety of really large data sets.

Also, please join the SQL Converter Beta Test mailing list to keep up with the latest releases as they are uploaded.

Summit Stairs and Millwork is live!

I'm happy to see Summit Stairs and Millwork's new e-commerce platform live at http://www.summitstairsandmillwork.com.  They sell a full range of stairs and stair parts along with custom design and milling of components.  We've helped them launch their site with Ruby on Rails and the Spree Commerce platform.

Simple Digital Whiteboard for Screencasts

I've long knew that I have a heart for teaching about interesting topics.  Here is my first "whiteboard-style" presentation.  The rest of the blog post will explain briefly how it was made.


Binary Search Tree (BST) vs Linked Lists from Frank Rietta on Vimeo.

On my MacBook Pro, I've had the Snapz Pro X software for recording screencasts for a few years.  It does a good job at capturing the entire or a selected region of the screen.  It also records the microphone track.  The resulting QuickTime movie file can then be loaded into either QuickTime or iMovie to do some cropping and converting to a flat MP4 that is suitable for uploading to one of the online video services.

However, I've pondered for a while what the easiest way to capture whiteboard-like presentations for a screencast.  Clearly videoing the speaker standing in front of a real whiteboard with a cell phone's camera is suboptimal at best.  Most of the time making out what is being said is difficult.

The solution to this challenge was surprisingly easy.  I recently ordered a Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch tablet.  Since I am going to be using it mostly for presentations and not graphics art, I went with the middle entry level model for $90.  Using this tablet and Autodesk Sketchbook Express, which is free from the Mac App Store, I am now able to record a screencast that consists of a crystal clear digital whiteboard and the spoken word.

After practicing for an hour, I recorded a short video on the differences between Binary Search Trees and Linked Lists.  This is the first presentation in the "CS with Frank" lecture series :-)

The audio quality is okay for a beginner. I think in the next one I will experiment with different locations for the microphone headset to see if I cannot reduce the pop.

I look forward to recording these sorts of videos!

Setting up Ubuntu for Rails Development - part 2

And here is the second video in the series on setting up Ubuntu Linux for Ruby on Rails development:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_0dTp0Fzoo&feature=plcp