Now from home

If you get stucked with a RoR error, restart script/server

Jos — Fri, 21 May 2010 07:24:38 +0000

Yesterday I had an idea for a web app (again!). I decided to sketch it out using Ruby On Rails as a way to experiment what’s outside the .NET ecosystem. Besides, if the idea finally crystallizes, it will fit much better in a Linux box than on a Windows server mostly because I think it will be hard to find a good revenue model.

This post is just a note to myself. I have to admin than I’m totally lost with RoR for now. I’m following several screencasts and reading every beginner’s tutorial I can find.

Following one of those tutorials I got stucked. I checked my config files, checked that I had not misspelled anything but nothing came out.

Finally I saw an error on the server log:

Rendering rescues/layout (internal server error)

That error message was logged 55 minutes ago!! Just restarting the ruby server made my error go away. This is the second time this happens, so I’m writing this post as a reminder. Depending of what files you touch, you could need to restart your app.

Moving from Subversion to Mercurial

Jos — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:11:19 +0000

I’ve been using Subversion for the last 5 years and it has served me well. I can’t conceive writing any meaningful code without using it. Using a source control tool is the definitive backup tool for your code and you should be using one no matter what.

Because I work mostly alone, merging has never been a real issue for me. Mainly because I rarely branched my code to work on different branches in parallel.

I used to have just a main branch (trunk) where I add new code. When the code it’s ready to release, I tag it and branch it. Then I continue to add code to the trunk. The branch is used only for maintenance of the shipped code.

When I touch code in the maintenance branch I can merge with the trunk or usually just fix the code in the trunk manually.

That’s it. No branches per feature, usually no experimental branches, life was easy.

However, as some of my projects begun to get momentum (read ‘get real paying customers’), my needs started to grow.

Now I have to have more than one active maintenance branch. I also need branches to develop some custom modules for some customers, and as my time to develop a single feature grows I also need branches to develop features that need a long time to complete.

If you branch a lot you have to merge a lot.

This implies that if you have problems merging you’ll try to avoid branching, and if you can’t branch as needed your source control tool is failing you.

I’ve been avoiding branching in subversion because the merging is sometimes complicated. More than once I end up applying changes manually or overwriting files from folder to folder. Not fun.

I started paying attention to all the buzz about git and its branching/merging model. I installed it and played with it. I saw the benefits but I find some concepts difficult to grasp, so I continued to use subversion while playing with git. Then I found hgInit, a Mercurial tutorial by Joel Spolsky. Turns out that Mercurial it’s pretty much like git, but simpler.

There are some differences that I’m not going to describe here, but they are not as important as their similarities. The key here is that merging code works great!

If you are using subversion please take a look at Mercurial or git. They are a really a big step forward. They have a different model than subversion so it takes a while to grasp the difference between a centralized and distributed source control system, but it’s worth it.

Here are some links that helped me see light:

http://hginit.com/

Linus Torvals on git

Upgrading my network: Linksys WRT320n

Jos — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:49:52 +0000

I wrote some time ago that I was having problems with my Windows Home Server and my main PC, mainly because the transfer speeds from my WHS to my PC were ridiculous. Uploads were fine though.

After looking into it for a long time, the problem was that my router/switch, an SMC Barricade, was not handling the traffic from the WHS properly. Every other PC was working right.

Anyway, I’ve changed the router by a Linksys WRT320n. This means that I’ve upgraded my LAN from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps.

Transfer speeds are now ok, getting 60 MB/s out of the box. Also, the wireless speed has improved dramatically, specially when using my iPhone 3Gs. Using my old router I was unable to watch YouTube videos and now they are loaded in no time.

I’ve been using this router only for a couple of days, but I’m already very happy with the upgrade.

I have had only one minor problem setting up the wireless connection. For some reason none of my WIFI devices were able to connect to the router. I needed to manually change the ‘WIFI channel’ from Auto to channel 11 in order to get it to work.

Shell extensions, the root of a lot of problems

Jos — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:03:25 +0000

In one of my computers, the simple action of creating a new folder or renaming a file was taking a lot of time. Windows Explorer seemed to freeze for a variable amount of time. Sometimes a few seconds sometimes as long a one minute!

Obviously some shell extension was the culprit, but which one? The idea of uninstalling one by one was discouraging, so I lived for a while with the problem until I found this little tool:

ShellExView

The ShellExView utility displays the details of shell extensions installed on your computer, and allows you to easily disable and enable each shell extension.

It literally save me a lot of time. You need to run this tool as an Administrator if you want to disable any shell extension.

It turns out that the shell extension that was causing the slow down was TortoiseSVN. For some reason it doesn’t seem to work well on my Windows 7 x64 computer. It does work ok on my laptop (W7 x86).

Time to update to the lastest version and review my settings.

Note: Installing TortoiseSVN’s latest version solved the problem, but I needed to run ShellExView again to enable it again.

Can’t modify my Visual Studio 2008 installation

Jos — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:53:45 +0000

I run setup to add the Web developer extensions to Visual Studio 2008 from the DVD and it complaint with the following message:

A problem has been encountered while loading the setup components. Cancelling Setup

What!!!

Ok, I know what’s going on. The DVD has Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 installation program, but I have Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 installed.

So, I need to modify the installation using Add/Remove programs and select Uninstall/Change. Then I got this:

A selected drive is no longer valid. Please review your installation path settings before continuing with setup.

Oh, great!

After wasting some time through the internets, the solution was to uninstall the Service Pack 1, add or remove the features you want and reinstall Service Pack 1.

Hope this saves you some time.

V 2009: I’ve been in some of the buildings inside Anna’s mothership

Jos — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:56:19 +0000

I’ve managed to see the V’s pilot episode, the 2009 remake anyway. And there’s a scene where we see a panoramic view of the spaceship’s guts above New York. Instantly I recognized some buildings because they exist for real and in fact they are in my city, Valencia.

Take a look at the pictures. Next time I visit La Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias I’ll look at those buildings with suspicious eyes

Movistar, precio de los MMS

Jos — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:11:45 +0000

Como comenté en mi post anterior, ahora estoy con Movistar para poder disfrutar de un iPhone. Por cierto que el terminal es simplemente alucinante.

Como ya me temía, a cambio del iPhone estoy obligado a sufrir a este operador. No quisiera convertir este blog en mi muro de las lamentaciones contra Movistar pero…

Este es el mensaje que acabo de recibir:

Por las características de tu terminal se informa que podrás enviar y recibir en un mismo mensaje: fotos, videos, melódías y hasta tu propia voz. Enviarlo es muy sencillo…

… Sólo te costará 1 euro más impuestos indirectos…

Sólo 1,16 € (pronto 1,18 €) !! Gracias por la información Movistar. Tiene gracia además que el mensaje te lo envían como un MMS y adjuntan una foto con 2 chiquitas muy monas usando sus teléfonos (apuesto a que no son de Movistar).

Como referencia, en Yoigo un MMS cuesta 30 céntimos.

En fin, una funcionalidad menos que tiene el iPhone gracias a Movistar.

Firmé un pacto con el diablo…

Jos — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:57:01 +0000

Es decir, con Movistar. A cambio me concede el deseo de disfrutar de un iPhone.

En los comentarios de este post comentaba que me había rendido en el tema del iPhone y que no quería seguirle el juego a Movistar. Sin embargo, caprichos del destino, mi teléfono decidió aprovechar el magnífico tiempo que hizo este pasado puente y se dió un chapuzón en la piscina. ¿Qué mejor excusa para retomar el tema de iPhone?

En fin que tomada la decisión, me empapé bien de las tarifas disponibles y me lancé de nuevo a la caza.

En la primera tienda que fui no tenían. En la segunda sí habían y esto es lo que pasó:

Yo: Buenos días, ¿tienen iPhones en stock?

Movi: Me tienen que entrar… ¿para qué era?

Yo: Portabilidad

Movi: ah, pues me parece que alguno tengo en el almacén.

Yo: Entonces, ¿me espero? (había más gente en la tienda)

Movi: Sí, espérate.

Vamos a ver, ¿te tienen que entrar o tienes? ¿Es que depende de si es una portabilidad o no? La respuesta está clara.

Cuando termina con la persona que estaba atendiendo, mete la mano debajo del mostrador y saca un iPhone 3GS precintado.

Me quedo flipado con la desfachatez de la dependienta. La cosa sigue…

Movi: Bueno tenemos varias tarifas…

Yo: Quiero la de Autónomos 12 con el plan de Internet básico de 15 €

Movi: A ver que consulte las tarifas…

(2 minutos mirando cosas en la pantalla del ordenador).

Movi: La tarifa de Autónomos 12 obliga a contratar el plan de datos Premium de 40 €

Yo: Imposible. Acabo de verlo en Internet

Movi: Bueno, ten en cuenta que la página de Internet trabaja con otras tarifas.

Yo: Ok, entonces me lo pillaré por Internet.

Movi: Espera que mire los correos electrónicos a ver si ha entrado algo más nuevo…

(Otro ratito jugando con el ratón)

Movi: A si, si. Aquí está tarifa 15 € con portabilidad… Vale, puedes contratar la de 15 €.

Movi: Bueno, pues entonces el móvil te sale por 139 €

Yo: Seguro, creo recordar que con portabilidad eran 99 €

Movi: Si, sí. Aquí lo tengo.

Yo: Pues estoy seguro de que he leído que eran 99 €. ¿Puedes meterte en la página del iPhone / Movistar y comprobarlo? Si pone 139 € me lo llevo sin más.

(Reticente, se pone a buscar pero no encuentra la tabla de precios)

Movi: Pues mira, no aparece y esto es la última información que me ha llegado.

Yo: ¿Estás de acuerdo conmigo en que no tiene sentido pagar 40 € más por lo mismo? ¿verdad?

Movi: Espera que voy a llamar…

(llama a alguien)

Movi: Ok, 99 €.

Yo: Vale. Vamos a hacer los papeles.

De verdad que estuve a punto de coger y marcharme. Pero pudo más la atracción de Apple.

Por supuesto el tema del seguro se lo reservó hasta que todo estuvo firmado.

Movi: Ay!, casi se me olvida. Sabes que el seguro es obligatorio ¿no?

(haciéndome el tonto y con sonrisa socarrona)

Yo: ¿Seguro? ¿Qué seguro? Yo no quiero ningún seguro.

(con cara descompuesta y visiblemente nerviosa. A estas alturas la tienda estaba llena de gente

Movi: Si, sí, es obligatorio sacarse este seguro para todos los móviles que superan (no se cuántos) euros.

Yo: Ok, si que lo sabía. Me parece que tomáis el pelo a la gente y que probablemente no sea ni legal. Pero bueno, cobrame los 40 € del seguro.

Movi: Ok, pues ya está todo. En unos 6 días te llamaremos

Por si alguno tiene la duda de lo que te cubre el seguro, os lo pongo a continuación. A la vez da risa y ganas de ir a la OCU.

- Robo o hurto (no especifica cantidad pero me he enterado que cubre 200 €)

- Llamadas fraudulentas hasta 2 horas antes de la declaración del siniestro y hasta 1200€

- Reparación del terminal, hasta 90 € (periodo de carencia de 45 días)

- Pérdida, con reembolso de 100 €

Y ya está!. Teniendo en cuenta que tendría que pagarle a Movistar 584 € si no cumplo los 18 meses de permanencia, en caso de robo o rotura el seguro no sirve para nada.

Todo esto intentando captarme como cliente nuevo. Imaginaros dentro de 18 meses cuando quiera cambiar mi iPhone por otro. Terrible.

Espero que esto le sirva a alguien que todavía vaya detrás del iPhone. Ir preparados porque van a intentar jugarosla en todos los pasos.

También recomiendo leer los ya famosos posts de: La odisea de comprar un iPhone en España I, II y III

Vado HD: Pocket high-definition video camera

Jos — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:15:45 +0000

Last month, my Sony HC-90 Handycam stopped working. The failure was quite simple, the objective’s cover didn’t fully open. I tried to repair it myself but it was impossible. I contacted Sony Service Support but they asked me 60 €. Too much for such a simple problem.

I decided to check what the market could offer me. I remembered to have read some great reviews about the Flip Ultra camera, which opened a new segment called ultaportable video cameras. I started reading reviews and comparisons charts with other ultraportable cameras.

Turns out that the Flip can’t be bought in Spain, so I lean towards the Creative Vado HD. It compares very good with the MinoHD.

For just 200 € shipped (much less if you can buy it from Amazon!) you get a video camera that fits in your pocket (just like a mobile phone), that can do HD (1280×720) and that has no moving parts. It has 8 GB of memory which is enough for 2 hours of high definition video. It also includes an HDMI cable.

Video quality is great even indoors with low light. Of course it cannot be compared with other bigger HD cameras, but it’s ok to shot home videos.

The camera has been designed with one goal in mind: simplicity. You turn on the camera (by the way is ready to shoot video in 1 second) and press the red button to start recording. Press it again to stop it. Each time you press the red button a new file is created.

The you can view the videos on the built-in small screen and delete those you don’t want. You can directly plug the camera to your TV (via HDMI), or connect it to any USB port in your computer and transfer the files.

It also includes some software to manage the videos and uploading them to YouTube and other services but I have not tried it yet. Honestly I don’t care about that software.

I’m very happy with the camera. The best advantage I see over traditional cameras is that you can bring it with you all the times and therefore you shoot a lot more videos. Ask my son

Windows 7 x64 and Intel 82562V-2 don’t work well together

Jos — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:03:51 +0000

As soon as Windows 7 RTM got released I upgraded my main computer and my laptop. On my main machine I put Windows 7 x64 as I have 8 GB there. Everything worked great except the network card. I was unable to get more than a couple of hundreds of KB/s of transfer speed.

I updated the drivers to the latest version from Intel, but it made no difference. Of course this was a show-stopping problem because backups takes forever and even browsing photos from a network share is simply impossible.

I’ve finally solved the problem purchasing a 6 € Gigabit network card. It works just fine and now I’m getting around 12 MB/s again (my network is 100MB for now).

I’m sure Intel will update their drivers before Windows 7 reaches General Availability.