To install a local .deb file

User dpkg

sudo dpkg -i name-of-deb-file.deb

Why doesn't anything install when using Python easy_install on OS X?

It’s because you have an old version of easy_install which is included with setuptools, just do the following:

sudo easy_install setuptools

and everything will suddenly be right with the world.

Blog Redesign

Am in the middle of resdesigning so expect things to look a bit weird, main changes are:

• Complete graphical redesign, bit less minimal
• Changing to fluid960gs for the layout
• Breaking out articles and links into different columns

Still some polishing to be done but looking better than the old unstyled mess

Most important point when using BackgroundRb

from Kyle Neath

“…classes are not dynamically loaded. Meaning that if you change the file and hit save — your code will not be updated in the running server. Every time you make a change to the worker files, you need to restart the server to see the changes.”

The should have that in BIG RED CAPS on the Rails page on the BackgroundRb site.

Considering a move from Newsgator to Google Reader

Let us see if the experiment works

Mac Heist = Loss Leader: What part of that equation do people not get?

The usual controversy around MacHeist pops up again, but most of the talk seems to miss a massive point. I see MacHeist as an opportunity to try out a load of apps for a decent amount of time (no 15 day lockouts) and then decide what apps I’m going to keep using. It SHOULD go without saying that if I really love World of Goo or The Hit List I’m going to follow the upgrade path for that app or look at the other apps/games that the developer is working on. MacHeist = Loss Leader.

Case in point – I have paid-for copies of OmniFocus and Things so I’m not going to pay full price for another GTD-type app (Things won that shootout.) The Hit List’s inclusion in the MacHeist bundle gives me, a target customer, an incentive to try it out properly. If it is a better mousetrap then I will switch allegiances. If not, I’ve not spent yet more money on another app. Win-Win.

And another thing – I’d never heard of EventBox but am loving it. They’re giving it away free, but with no free upgrades, your stuck on the MacHeist build until you buy. I’m absolutely fine with that and am pretty much 100% sure that i’ll be buying it in the next week or so. There are many models of Freemium and it depends on the product which one you use.

Note: Calling potential customers “Cheap f***ing bastards” (http://bit.ly/omr9h) because they’re buying a MacHeist bundle pretty much ensures I won’t ever buy your software

Bruce Sterling drops some science

http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2009/03/what-bruce-ster.html

Says some things that need saying. I’m pretty sure that we are starting to turn the boat in the direction he wants us to go – there are definitely some positives coming out of the the financial crash. I hope the main change will be the rejection of the more abstract, post-modern ways of making money – a career built on actually creating something or providing a real, valuable service has been de-valued and we need to fix that. Sustainability is a buzzword that applies to everything and we’re getting a wake up call to apply it to career paths.

Rails Setup for Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh

Set up my Mini 9 as a hackintosh and wanted to set up a rails environment for fiddling about with on the commute, unfortunately the lack of make, gcc etc. stopped native gems building. Didn’t want to install the full dev tools so did it by hand, try the following.

Download the OS X dev tools from apple.com, when img is mounted go into the packages folder and install the following package – DevSDK.pkg, DeveloperToolsCLI.pkg, gcc4.2.pkg

For me the symlinks for gcc and cc were pointing at gcc4.0 which wasn’t there – go in and change these to point to gcc4.2

sudo rm gcc
sudo ln -s gcc-4.2 gcc
sudo rm cc
sudo ln -s gcc-4.2 cc

API Dock in Textmate

http://blog.nodeta.fi/2009/02/23/apidock-in-textmate/

  % mkdir -p ~/Library/Application\ Support/Textmate/Bundles
  % cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Textmate/Bundles
  % git clone git://github.com/lautis/ruby-on-rails-tmbundle.git "Ruby on Rails.tmbundle"
  % git clone git://github.com/lautis/ruby-tmbundle.git "Ruby.tmbundle"
  % osascript -e 'tell app "TextMate" to reload bundles'

Sass / Compass

Compass Tutorial
http://gom-jabbar.org/articles/2009/02/04/don-t-use-css-or-table-layout-use-sass-ad-compass

Sass Tutorial
http://acts-as-architect.blogspot.com/2008/11/compass-primer.html