Articles

Upgrading the script/console in Windows VISTA environment

If you haven’t been actively using script/console – you should start it now. It allows you to test things out in the environment of your project with a direct feedback. So, if you want to check those quirky database queries or how a new plugin works, run the script/console and start coding.

However, as seemingly everything in Ruby Rails, the console is a bit buggy in Windows. This calls for a console upgrade. At the same time we will include some further improvements as well to make your console the best firend.

BrowserPlus on GitHub

Yesterday YDN unveiled their new BrowserPlus developer portal and released the BrowserPlus Platform source code on GitHub: http://github.com/browserplus/platform

Initial Ruby on Rails Tutorial chapters

The first four chapters of Ruby on Rails Tutorial are out!

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Ready, Set, Go!

Google recently publicly released their new programming language, Go. I’ve known about this for some time, having worked for the big G while it was in development, although not directly involved.

Google has plenty of special purpose languages, but this is the first general purpose language to come out of Mountain View. That fact alone makes it quite interesting. Add to it that some of the original C and UNIX people are involved, and it becomes something that requires investigation.

Lessons Learned

Don’t issue invoices when jet-lagged.

The #1 thing to learn if you're new to git

Now I'm not 'new new' to git anymore, I've been using it off and on for at least a couple of years, but I've been using cvs/svn for many more years than that. git has a steep learning curve[1], and have found the git-svn crash course invaluable.

CommunityEngine: Gets i18n, FaceBook and Geolocation Plugins, And More

We first wrote about CommunityEngine, a social networking plugin for Rails, a year ago. Since then, it's come on leaps and bounds and even has some plugins of its own available.

Loading several Rails applications into a single Tomcat container with Trinidad

Sometimes you meet that kind of people that complain about the lack of any feature in an open source project but they don't do anything to solve the problem. Last releases of Trinidad try the solve one of that complaints, so that people have one excuse less to use it :)

Ushahidi: Crowdsourcing Crisis Info

Every once in a while I find out that a project I’ve been following is actually open source and hosted on GitHub. Just recently I found out that a great project called Ushahidi is hosted here. Ushahidi is a PHP platform that crowdsources crisis information allowing anyone to submit reports through text messaging using a mobile phone, email or web form.

New: Performance graphs (beta)

We quietly rolled out a new feature into the Brightbox control panel a couple of weeks ago, adding performance graphs for each of your Brightbox virtual machines. To view graphs for a virtual machine, click the “full details” link from the overview screen. You can currently choose to view CPU, disk i/o, public and private network usage for the last hour, day, week and month.

Helping with Texting | Rails Fire

Helping with Texting

UNICEF is using SMS to help those in need. And they’re doing it with open source.

You can read all about RapidSMS, their Mobile and SMS platform, but here’s a snippet:

The impact a RapidSMS implementation has on UNICEF’s work practices is dramatic. In October 2008, Ethiopia experienced crippling droughts. Faced with the possibility of famine, UNICEF Ethiopia launched a massive food distribution program to supply the high-protein food Plumpy’nut to under-nourished children at more than 1,800 feeding centres in the country. Previously, UNICEF monitored the distribution of food by sending a small set of individuals who traveled to each feeding center. The monitor wrote down the amount of food that was received, was distributed, and if more food was needed. There had been a two week to two month delay between the collection of that data and analysis, prolonging action. In a famine situation each day can mean the difference between recovery, starvation, or even death.

The Ethiopian implementation of RapidSMS completely eliminated the delay. After a short training session the monitors would enter information directly into their mobile phones as SMS messages. This data would instantaneously appear on the server and immediately be visualized into graphs showing potential distribution problem and displayed on a map clearly showing where the problems were. The data could be seen, not only by the field office, but by the regional office, supply division and even headquarters, greatly improving response coordination. The process of entering the data into phones was also easier and more cost effective for the monitors themselves leading to quick adoption of the technology.

What a great use of technology. The site says, “GSMA [predicts] that by 2010, 90% of the world will be covered by mobile networks.” Seems like SMS is going to become more important and more ubiquitous in the future.

Check out the RapidSMS home page or browse the source, right here on GitHub: http://github.com/rapidsms/rapidsms