tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-103818932024-03-13T13:50:43.817-07:00Mark Holton's Weblog :: Web Application DevelopmentA web developer, architect, & aspiring RESTafarian's thoughts on software, web tech, entrepreneurial endeavors and some creative ideas. Mark's current focus is on developing elastic & RESTful Ajax applications on the Cloud with the following technologies: OO and unobtrusive JavaScript using the Prototype JS library, jQuery, and on the server side prefers to write OO code in Ruby, Rails; Amazon EC2 AS3 SimpleDB; mySQL; -- currently learning a new language each year and groking UnixMark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-54006801291589148652010-08-08T00:18:00.000-07:002010-08-08T00:28:13.043-07:00new blog built on RailsMy thoughts on web application development, especially in the realm of Ruby on Rails, Heroku, the cloud, Ruby, Rails, Memcache, PostgreSQL, No-SQL, iPhone, and other topics are being shared now on http://MarkHolton.comMark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-78842643070378916152010-04-03T13:43:00.000-07:002010-04-03T13:46:53.262-07:00iPad morning...took these pics at 9 a.m. in suburbia, Washington. A buddy and I headed out to the Apple store, the line was around the block for *reserved* iPads. Many of these people had undoubtedly never seen or touched one, but were buying one. There was a separate line for unreserved. A handful of police on hand to keep the peace.Amazing brand to compel surburban-ites out of their homes on an early Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-87304455452064863792009-12-25T11:02:00.000-08:002009-12-25T11:39:56.691-08:00home network and backups: NAS convenience & simplicityMerry Christmas! My gift to you is sharing some home networking and backup information!The Dream:...will start with a dream. This is... the Cadillac of home storage. The Drobo with SATA option. Considered it, but didn't go this route for our home network due to price. But you should check it out:http://www.drobo.com/products/drobo-s.phpSATA, hot swappable, plenty of space for the next decadeMark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-41000009331223568132009-12-18T06:33:00.000-08:002009-12-18T06:35:16.191-08:00DNS hijack - high level explanationhttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/18/dns_twitter_hijack/A bunch of servers exist throughout the internet which map friendly human readable names (twitter.com, eyeonmajors.com) to IP addresses. These are DNS servers (Domain Name System servers) -- phonebook for the internet. When you type in "tigerwoods.com" to see his latest transgression admission, along the way DNS is queried and you are Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-65959051418595251332009-08-09T13:22:00.000-07:002009-08-09T13:25:13.663-07:00lawn improvementhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqHcm66s-kc...since August 4th, decided to step it up. Watering, raking (a lot of dead grass), overseeding... took a picture every day. Hopefully in a month it will be all filled in. Plan to continue to log it with pictures every day or two, grow the slide show.Better improvement in ~4-5 days than expected, it's filling in nicely. The 16 point sprinkler ($14.95) inMark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com56tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-91232099166902276542009-08-05T17:04:00.001-07:002009-08-05T17:06:53.486-07:00microformats ftwMaybe not "cool" to say so, but MySpace++. Love the initiative to push forward with Microformats. µFormats ftw http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/myspace_to_bet_its_future_on_open_standards.phpHere's how MySpace's plan is unlike what Facebook is doing. The updates will be marked up for the types of activities they represent with standardized microformat code, beginning with the events format Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-18718232552165972892009-08-05T10:51:00.000-07:002009-08-05T10:52:57.127-07:00programmable sprinklerThis is non-software related, but brilliant:http://www99.epinions.com/review/Pulsating_Pattern_Master_Sprinkler/content_137910324868Was hoping someone already invented something like this, as I have a non-circular lawn ;) Bought it. Very reasonable price, I hope it works well.Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-69887038363348298422009-08-05T10:49:00.001-07:002009-08-05T10:49:58.379-07:00grok-ing POSH..class names in XHTML are for semantics, not presentation. Yes, provide presentation with CSS calling out the class name, but the main purpose is for semantics.http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/goodclassnameshttp://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/contentPresentation-26.htmlMark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-33945459620950023892009-08-05T10:48:00.000-07:002009-08-05T10:49:01.219-07:00Google acquires On2 (video compression)http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/innovation-in-video-on-web.html...high quality, searchable video programming on the web one day = inevitable. Surely Google wants to be at the epicenter. Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-6210774625215367652009-08-05T10:43:00.000-07:002009-08-05T10:47:46.640-07:00App Store censors a dictionary?This is pretty lame:http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/ninjawordsIn other words, not only must the dictionary be censored — a dictionary — but even after being purged of “objectionable” words it would only be considered with a 17+ rating. Even after agreeing to these terms, it took another two weeks for Ninjawords to appear in the App Store. According to Crosby, “We gave in and said fine, hoping Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-73102335268093024612009-08-05T10:38:00.000-07:002009-08-05T10:41:55.181-07:00Ajax API team leaves Google for VMWareExciting times. VMWare is everywhere, so is cloud computing. For now I'll settle for being able to consistently build and deploy web apps on an elastic cloud (Heroku) in my spare time, but things are moving fast, which is fun to observe. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/13/google-loses-engineering-director-who-once-caused-steve-ballmer-to-melt-down/Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-20280708340856444772009-05-25T23:09:00.000-07:002009-05-25T23:19:36.944-07:00Erlang -- let's get it on!Messed around with Erlang for like the sum total of 2 hours over a year ago. But have decided recently that I'm going to sit down and little by little work towards learning it. It just seems like a great complement on the back end with Ruby, especially with items like CouchDB bubbling up. It's also fun and mind bending exercise to learn new syntax, along with a different language. Erlang is Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-32238319614979918292009-02-18T23:43:00.000-08:002009-02-19T00:01:40.928-08:00internationalization...since I'm going to have to speak Spanish in Alhambra, CA during the AT&T work stoppage... I might as well incorporate that into my web applications and "make lemonade" as the saying goes.That's just a positive spin on having to go there. We coincidentally have homework due next week related to internationalization.Been writing the Depot app via the PragProg book in Rails, but am doing so Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-77268704262249084052009-02-08T15:14:00.000-08:002009-02-08T15:27:47.556-08:00Get Satisfaction -- customer dialogueAn example of what I'm using for EyeOnMajors to elicit customer feedback, ideas, etc.http://getsatisfaction.com/eyeonmajorsMark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-31912408556046098132009-02-03T14:12:00.001-08:002009-02-03T14:12:46.028-08:00forcing repaint DOM in IE6 and IE7?I have loop that makes server-side Ajax calls on each iteration, and returns data. This could be 50 iterations, 500, 5000, whatever. Upon each iteration, I update that particular row with a server-side response (i.e. "success" or "fail"), and then update the total count processed ("26 out of 432 processed"). -- I update the innerHTML of a div or span, and another div showing the total number Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-527450750535519362009-01-28T13:56:00.000-08:002009-01-28T14:03:13.696-08:00Why "require 'rubygems'" In Your Library/App/Tests Is WrongI have been suitably convinced...http://gist.github.com/54177Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-37185320973782720792009-01-28T11:47:00.000-08:002009-01-28T11:53:36.786-08:00Recommended Ruby, Rails, REST books!I have read the following books (some more closely than others). I'd recommend each of them for various reasons. All have been helpful in understanding many of the pragmatic concepts baked into Rails, understanding the Ruby programming language, and web development in general. I hope you have a chance to check them out on your own path of learning!:MarkRESTful Web ServicesThe Ruby Way, Second Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-36187254006123843142009-01-22T17:02:00.001-08:002009-01-22T17:03:55.716-08:00'Daemon' by Daniel SuarezDaemon, by Daniel Suarez. This looks like a really fun read, going to grab it! Check it out.Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-64473500411131331912009-01-16T00:27:00.000-08:002009-01-16T00:31:03.077-08:00'carl_spackler' about to get ORM-ified...yup, it's time... no more mysql gem... Should have done this earlier, but no better time than the present to implement......this weekend...going to convert any [current 'carl_spackler'] database queries that are mysql-specific, into ActiveRecord calls. This way, someone is just one adapter change away from using their database, any db they want that ActiveRecord supports, with Spackler. ...Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-56103431426207509372009-01-11T12:42:00.000-08:002009-01-11T12:46:50.498-08:00normalizing up 3 part names -- initial stake in ground...all tests passing... ...collecting all 2008 PGATour data, and more Euro data now...There are ZERO orphans in the 2008 PGATour data right now. Have collected each and every player's data for 36 tournaments in 2008. Including any other 3 part names.The Player class is not in its ultimate form, but it is there and it splits names appropriately... still doesn't flatten special wacky characters Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-42311591516909663092009-01-02T13:53:00.000-08:002009-01-02T13:54:58.109-08:00vote for GitHubVote for GitHub as best bootstrapped startup in 2008. It takes 2 seconds and they are truly deserving:http://crunchies2008.techcrunch.com/votes/?nominee_id=8&category_id=2Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-23275903321099229972008-12-29T11:11:00.000-08:002008-12-29T11:20:31.414-08:00scraping data from the web is difficult (but fun!) around the edgesBeen working on a variety of data collection tools, and plan on continuing to do so. It's fun, I'm getting some things done, and it helps exercise the brain. Through all of these exercises:Starting to realize, the hardest part about collecting data from the web... is not grabbing the data (Nokogiri makes that pretty easy)... it's making the data fit into the 'holes' you want it to fit in. Not Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-84913913457444352552008-12-25T11:23:00.001-08:002008-12-25T11:45:21.980-08:00Merry Christmas, Irish Optimists!Irish annihilate HawaiiWhat a phenomenal game for the Irish yesterday in the Hawaii Bowl. Clausen was perfect, completely accurate 401 yards through 2.5 quarters, 5 td passes. Armando Allen runs back a kick for a TD, Golden with 2 bomb TD catches, and one punt run back (called back for roughing, too bad).The Irish looked dominant on both sides of the ball, and special teams. By far the best Mark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-30914214848143628592008-12-23T13:33:00.000-08:002008-12-23T13:35:26.592-08:00Merb and Rails unite in Rails3!I see this as great news for the Ruby and Rails and Merb communities... what are your thoughts?Yehuda Katz post is a great rundown:http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2008/12/23/merb-gets-merged-into-rails-3/comments/24239#comment-24239http://yehudakatz.com/2008/12/23/rails-and-merb-merge/http://rubyonrails.org/merbMark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10381893.post-29010244348052063472008-11-24T13:09:00.000-08:002008-11-24T13:10:48.193-08:00Google Finance - Feature RequestDear Google Finance,It is possible to include a music feature in your application, specifically in the My Portfolio section? I would like to play the music sound of a carnival carousel that goes up and down, up and down, up and down... make it have a downward trend though in the tone.Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!Sincerely,Mark HoltonUserMark Holtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031910098133967657noreply@blogger.com1