noise dept.
taylor price
Sade Olutola
⁂
Discoholic 🪩
pixel skylines
tannertan36
KIROKAZE
$LAYYYTER
hello vonnie
almost home
NASA
Janaina Medeiros
PR's Tumblrdome
Not today Justin
Peter Solarz
art blog(derogatory)
occasionally subtle
Game of Thrones Daily
YOU ARE THE REASON
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@ishuah
One year ago today I sat down and started a project that has changed my life. That sounds totally corny but it’s true. April 1st of last year was day one of my 180 websites in 180 days project and I was super nervous. I had no idea how to code. My computer broke and I was using a borrowed...
Today I want to tell my story of how drawing helps me write better code.
No more than 1.5 years ago I didn’t know how to draw anything more complex than a human-like figure made from 5 lines and 1 circle. Nor did I believe that I ever could or will. I was wrong.
If you can draw this, you...
It's Now One Year Since My Laptop Was Stolen
I'd had it for five years, my first laptop. I started programming at an early age (Pascal on a very very old desktop computer) but my journey into programming really took off after I got my laptop. Java quickly became my programming language of choice. I was in my second year at University (taking Computer Science) and all I wanted to do was code.
Fast forward to my first job; Still used my then three year old laptop. I signed on as a web developer and had to switch to PHP. At the time I primarily used Windows 7 but I still had an Ubuntu partition, just for kicks. I got be be part of a developer culture, finally understood MVC frameworks (we used Codeigniter) and most importantly, I embraced teamwork.
My second job, about an year later. I was the Lead developer at an online magazine. Work wasn't that intense so I took on side jobs and tried out new programming languages (node.js was quickly becoming popular). I still used my then four year old laptop.
My third job, Spatial Collective, a year later. I signed on as a software developer working primarily on GIS platform so I had to start forging new ground. My Ubuntu installation finally got updated, twende kazi. Then my laptop got stolen.
Devastation. I had repos for all the important projects I had worked on but I was still devastated. My first "hello world" java program was still in there, all the little scripts I wrote to remember basic algorithms were still in there. I had all these programming tutorials in an ordered sequence. An OpenGL project I did for school, took me a month to get done, lost. I never thought I'd loose this stuff, I never knew how much they meant to me.
Roll with the punches. I was starting a new job, learning a new language and a foreign framework and getting to use an actual software development methodology. It was a fresh start. I got a new laptop, installed Linux Mint (came with very high recommendations from my new Team Leader). My projects are now on remote repos, my documents backed up, I feel a lot safer and I love my job.
Summary: don't count the time, make the time count.
Python/Django - Take Screenshots With Selenium
Problem situation: I need to take a screenshot of a map, after initial data is loaded. A front-end (javascript) solution would be too finicky, so I sought out for a back-end solution.
Solution: I came about this tutorial by @cgoldberg. Basically you take a screenshot using the selenium browser (selenium.webdriver.Firefox()) running on a virtual display. I still had a problem; the map requires user authentication, which the selenium browser lacks since it runs independent of the current user. I needed to figure out how to user the current user's session on the selenium browser so I can access the map THEN finally take a screenshot.
6 hours and 9 StackOverflow posts later, I found a solution. Using the add_cookie method I could inject the user's sessionid and successfully authenticate. Here's how.
Install Xvfb and selenium
$ sudo apt-get install xvfb xserver-xephyr
$ sudo pip install selenium
Then the following example will take a screenshot of a page that requires authentication
https://gist.github.com/8671610
Nairobi on Instagram
URL: http://nairobigram.herokuapp.com
My December 2013 mini project; An Instagram photo stream for Nairobi, Kenya.
Instagram has a very well documented real-time api that's simple to implement. I used socket.io to deliver real-time updates so any photo that's geo-tagged within Nairobi or tagged #nairobi will appear on the feed.
The project is open source, fork it here.
Nodejs, Socket.io, mongoDb on Heroku
http://nodejstodo.herokuapp.com/
About a year ago I wrote a simple nodejs app based on todomvc. I finally got about to hosting it on heroku (took me exactly 24 minutes, start to finish).
I used the official heroku-nodejs tutorial here. I had to enable websockets, thus
heroku labs:enable websockets
More people are willing to “invest in Bitcoin”. Before doing that they need to understand what it is and what it isn’t. Someone asked me if it’s okay to “invest in BTC for a year at current prices”. This way to put it is to admit that you do not understand the value of Bitcoin. You will buy at…
Using GAE Blobstore on Django
I ran into a problem working with django on GAE: uploading images. AppEngine can't access the file system. The only way to upload images ( or files in general ) is to upload them to Blobstore or Google Cloud Storage.
Solution: https://github.com/kienluu/blobstore_storage
1. Clone the repo
2. add 'blobstore_storage' to your INSTALLED_APPS (settings.py)
3. add DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE = "blobstore_storage.storage.BlobStoreStorage" to your settings.py
4. add url(r'^media/', include('blobstore_storage.urls')), to your urls.py
5. For any models that require file upload set storage=BlobStoreStorage()
example: https://gist.github.com/ishuah91/7308314
Saved me a lot of time. I couldn't find the the author's email (https://github.com/kienluu) on his github profile page, wanted to thank him.
If you're reading this kienluu, May the force be with you, thank you.
Host multiple domains from a single django project
One project, multiple domains. I know I know, django already has the Sites feature built in but you can't use that to actively serve multiple domains. Django-dynamic-site-lite adds this functionality to your project.
Testing locally with apache2
(Assuming you have a django instance.)
1. Install DynamicSitesLite
sudo pip install django-dynamicsites-lite
2. Edit your /etc/hosts, add
127.0.0.1 do.main.one
127.0.0.1 do.main.two
3. Add the two domains to your django project's sites list
4. Set one of the domains as the DEFAULT_HOST in your settings.py
Both domains will serve your django project. Use request.domain in your views to detect the active domain.
Carpathian: Yet Another Example Django Application
Since February this year I have been developing in python, using the django framework and I love it. I'm not just saying that. Django rocks.
Everyone starts with the demo application when learning a new language, I did the "Polls" app on the official django documentation. Carpathian is yet another demo app which I wrote a while back as a test for a side job.
The task was to prototype a web-based tool for collecting customer feedback. It's not well written, there are improvements to be made but it might be helpful to anyone new to Django/Python.
Clone the repo here.
Todo Web App: Node.js + MongoDb
I like challenges. No matter how small and irrelevant. That's why I put myself to the task of replicating todoMVC using Node.js and MongoDb.
Front-end DOM manipulation done using jQuery, back-end server written in Node.js implemented using express.js. Database server MongoDb interfaced using mongoose.js.
You can clone it here. That's all folks!
Edit: Added real-time functionality, just for the fun of it :)
The Learning curve Part One
The software engineer's learning curve, it's more than just writing code, it's building solutions. The learning curve is my quest to become a better software engineer.
Today's topic: Solving problems, don't build ideas, directly pulled from this post right here by John Marbach.
A few years back I was involved in a startup 'idea'. I was called in and after a short interview I got hired to be the lead developer at the startup. Things were going well. Traffic was steadily growing. Then reality hit: we had reached our peak. The new features we had developed were not being utilized. Traffic started declining. Things fell apart.
What went wrong? Here's my opinion.
We were building an idea. I found myself explaining the product to everyone I met. I had to explain how to use it and why use it. It was an idea, not a solution. The few return users we had were using it for other reasons, not the ones intended.
The bottom line: Your project should solve a problem. You'll save yourself a lot of disappointment and distress.
Edit: Helpful startup lessons by @andreasklinger
Installing an SSL Certificate on Apache 2 Ubuntu 12.04
This was by far the toughest (but most fulfilling) task I've performed on my ec2 server (henceforth referred to as Noisy Boy). Thank you ninja @Amasy for the free SSL certificate! sudo high-5 . Server details: Apache2 running on Ubuntu version 12.04 Steps are as follows:
1. Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)
(a) Create the directory /etc/apache2/ssl and navigate to it.
(b) In the folder, create the server key as follows.
openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 2048
Remember the passphrase!
(c) Generate CSR
2. Hand over the CSR to your Certificate signing provider. The process differs with different Providers but the end result is the certificate. Download it, like a bauss! or a systems admin, whichever you choose.
3. Upload the Certificate and the certificate bundle to /etc/apache2/ssl.
4. Enable ssl: sudo a2enmod ssl
5. Edit the file /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl. Add the Certificate files as follows.
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/mycert.cert SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.key SSLCertificateCHainFile /etc/apache2/ssl/mycertbundle.cert
6. Edit the same file under the Directory tag, set AllowOverride All
7. Run this command.
sudo a2ensite default-ssl
8. Restart Apache2.
Done.
Setting up vsftpd on Ubuntu (on ec2)
I had an issue with vsftpd. Every time I tried connecting with a FileZilla FTP client the connection cut out when FileZilla went into passive mode. After going through the vsftpd man pages I realized I hadn't configured it to go into passive mode. I found a solution here. After installing vsftpd (sudo apt-get install vsftpd) I edited the config file (found at/etc/vsftpd.conf) to enable passive mode and to set the passive address. In short, my vsftpd.conf file looks like this:
listen=YES anonymous_enable=NO local_enable=YES pasv_enable=YES pasv_address=/your IP address here pasv_min_port=14000 pasv_max_port=14050 write_enable=YES port_enable=YES
Restarted vsftpd: sudo service vsftpd restart
Enabled the passive ports (14000 to 14050) on the Security groups (Amazon Web Services Management Console).
Done.
Enabling Apache to use .htaccess files
One of the many setbacks I had while setting up this blog was figuring out I had to enable Apache to use .htaccess files. (Yeah, writing that sentence killed some brain cells) The blog runs on CI Bonfire, and just like any PHP framework it requires mod_rewrite to rewrite URLs on the fly. After setting up the Bonfire I noticed the URL's were not being rewritten. I had installed mod_rewrite, .htaccess file was okay so what was the problem? After hours of research/trolling/9gag I found a solution here. Apparently after installing Apache (on Ubuntu) you have to configure it to allow it to use .htaccess files. Yeah. Someone should have put that notice up in the apache2 man pages. (Note: This is specifically for Ubuntu users) To enable apache2 to use .htaccess files, do as follows:
1. Open this file for editing:
/etc/apache2/sites-available/default
2. Look for the following section
<Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride None Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory>
Change AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All.
3. Restart apache2
sudo service apache2 restart
Now you're good to go.
Executing .sql file from terminal
For some reason (I haven't installed PHPMyAdmin on my server) I had to find an alternative way of importing an sql to my MySQL server. This is a simple tutorial on how you can run the script from terminal. Simple as cake. Steps:
Step 1: Upload the script to the folder. Make sure the file is executable by the current user or just change file permissions to 777
Step 2: Log into mysql and select the table you want to use.
user@localhost:/var/www/folder-uploaded$ mysql -u root -p mysql> use my_database
Step 3: Luke, use the source.
mysql> source upload.sql
Step 4: Sit back and enjoy your awesomeness.
Edit: I finally ended up installing phpMyAdmin thanks to the nagging of one @Amasy
